Kenny Doin Just Fine
by Sadie Wernick Hurwitz
Category: Fiction

KENNY DOIN' JUST FINE Miriam Greenfield, a proud and intellectual young woman, is stuck in the Los Angeles ghetto of Boyle Heights, where poverty and responsibility to her family stiffle all her personal ambitions and lead her further and further away from her dream of achieving a life in the world of literature. When her husband Alex is caught by the IRS in a shady business deal, Miriam is forced to go to work. Despite her vehement dislike of government charity she enters into a career as a Social Worker and gravitates to the one area where she feels she can do some good...Aid to Dependent Children. There she meets thirteen-year old Kenny Ray James the emotionally disturbed son of a drug addicted mother. Raised by an uncaring Aunt and an abusive Uncle, Kenny has become dangerously violent and is unwanted wherever Miriam places him. Psychiatric evaluations diagnose him as mentally underdeveloped and psychotic. But Miriam has seen a loving and intelligent side to Kenny and something about him reminds her of her own son. Miriam becomes determined to change the course of Kenny's life before her imminent retirement from the Department.