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Roxie's Angels by Judianne Lee Lulu
book review by Karyn Saemann
"I loved being with this incredible person who so clearly loved me and loved being with me.... When days are tough for me I think of Johanna.... She is one of my angel crew."
It's the 1950s, and teenager Roxie Rayburn whirls from cheerleading practice to movie matinees to her first prom. Roxie also has a violent, mentally ill mother and a father who can't bring himself to permanently institutionalize her. In a journal, Roxie chronicles her life.
Lee word-paints beautiful pictures of the things that matter to Roxie–the Arizona landscape, her horses, crinolines, her first car. The 1950s backdrop is well-set, as is the sharp division between her father's ranch and mother's house in a nearby town, where some horrific abuse occurs. There is deep reflection as Roxie journals about the abuse as well as about books, world events and the role of women. She dreams of being a judge. She wonders about her birth mother, who gave her up as a toddler.
Lee's characters are well-drawn and complexly gray. Even Roxie's mother, Ida, commands some sympathy.
The failure of Roxie's father to put her safety above his desire to keep Ida home is wrenchingly told. At one emotional apex, Roxie, in fear of her mother, bars her bedroom door with two bolts and a dresser. The writing is strong throughout but intermittently sings, including when Roxie recalls an elderly neighbor's face as "a treasure of angles and lines." So, too, is grief finely handled in the deaths of a rancher and a horse.
Lee deftly makes her intended point that Roxie's survival is due to a band of living angels–from teachers to neighbors to ranch hands who deeply love her, physically care for her, and ultimately save her from Ida.