Book excerpt: "With unflinching humor and honesty, Etienne paints a powerful picture of her wealthy, Louisiana family--a mother, who bounces from sobriety to drunkenness, kindness to vicious cruelty, and a father who tries to protect his sons from death and his daughters from danger. Murder, insanity, suicide, and alcoholism overshadow Mardi Gras balls, Christmas celebrations, family fishing trips, and a daughter's bittersweet coming-of-age. Rising stakes threaten to topple Marie as she struggles to escape, yet understand, her mother's abusive madness. Thirty years later, Marie takes readers on a harrowing trek past the point of survival, yearning for the love she knows she cannot get from her husband, but can only hope to give to her own children"--Page 4 of cover.