Title: Living doll
First published: 1995
Description: Little Shirley lives in a bewildering places inhabited by her mother, her sister, a younger brother, relatives, a number of “Daddies” and an assortment of people who pass through her house. Retreating from this world of exploitation and pain, she pretends that she is a living doll, a perfect Shirley Temple. She carefully constructions an inner life of Barbie dolls, pet cemeteries, and a constant winning smile. But as the years progress, Shirley yearns for a better and different world, and with courage and determination begins to take the first unsettling and painful steps that lead to a re-invention of self.
Subjects: Fiction, Child sexual abuse, Family, Families, Fiction, general
LC classification: PS3552.R2274 L58 1995