Vacation reading

While we were away on Orcas Island, I had enough time to plow through an old paperback that I picked up several months ago for a buck. At that price, I got my money's worth and more when I read "Anywhere But Here," the debut novel by Mona Simpson.

This one slipped past me on a number of levels. I hadn't heard of Simpson. Or the book. Or the movie it inspired. Turns out it came out in 1986 and was made into a film in 1999, starring Susan Sarandon as Adele and Natalie Portman as her daughter Ann.

The book is based to some extent on Simpson's background. She was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, then moved to Los Angeles as a young teenager. Her mother was the daughter of a mink farmer and the first person in her family to attend college, according to goodreads.com

In the novel, Adele is a well-intentioned but dysfunctional young divorcee, and Ann is an ordinary, mostly diligent and often-exasperated girl trying to make the best of the circumstances created by her mom. Adele longs to get away from the small Wisconsin town where she has grown up, believing that moving to Beverly Hills is the key to her happiness and her daughter's future.

Mona Simpson

She's intent on snagging a husband and preoccupied with acquiring things that suggest status. But her decision-making is utterly unpredictable and usually poor; she bounces checks, doesn't pay bills, quits her jobs and often skips meals -- all the while scheming to get Ann a role on television.

Ann, meanwhile, struggles to find friendship and acceptance at a high school where nose jobs, expensive cars and enormous homes are the norm among her peers.

You want to pull your hair out as loopy Adele stumbles through life, caught up with appearances and what other people think. You root for Ann, hoping she'll overcome her mother's foibles. And as the 500-plus page novel unfolds to incorporate the perspectives of Adele's mother and older sister Carol, who has stayed behind in their nondescript hometown, you appreciate the layers of storytelling and personal histories that the author presents.

"Anywhere But Here" was a national bestseller when it came out. As a tale about a mother and daughter -- and the bonds that unite them despite their difficulties -- it's not bad. Not the best I've ever read but certainly a suitable book for a laid-back vacation.

Photograph: goodreads.com