Starting Out Sideways

After her husband runs off with her best friend, Roseanna Plow thinks it can't get any worse, but the curve balls keep coming. Rosie's job as a social worker is made even more stressful as she's pursued by Milton, one of her developmentally challenged clients, and Mickey ""Ham"" Hamilton, Milton's boss at the SaveWay grocery. Her dad has just been diagnosed with prostate cancer; her relationship with her meddling mother, the tough-talking, cigarette-smoking Helen Pulkowski (""like a moll in the Rat Pack"") is rocky. Rosie longs to swap her mother's tell-it-like-it-is approach for some maternal compassion, but instead finds a long-hidden skeleton in her family's closet. As the two fight it out, New England PEN Discovery Award-winner Mitchell writes prose that hums with vibrant characters, zippy dialogue and a poignant humor.