In the first chapter Linda, a Yale freshman, returns to Boiling Springs, N.C., because her dreadful grandmother Iris is dying: “She had never told a lie, and the fear of that had kept our family, a shrinking brood, together.’’ Iris’s last words to Linda are, “What I know about you, little girl, would break you in two.’’
Linda calmly replies with an epithet, provoking a suppressed laugh from her great-uncle Harper and “Hush your mouth,’’ from her estranged mother, DeAnne. “My grandmother Iris and I were both speaking the truth and DeAnne couldn’t stand to hear it.’’
At Yale in the late 1980s Linda learns a new word to describe the Hammerick family: dysfunctional. Her parents were unhappily married for almost 25 years before Linda’s adored, and adoring, father, Thomas, died. Linda’s beloved great-uncle Harper is a “confirmed bachelor’’ and closet cross-dresser. And Iris, who never told a lie, had a “slithery’’ phrase to delineate a fact from a secret: “Don’t tell anyone.’’ The Hammericks kept Linda’s secrets. The only clue she has about her origins is a sense memory, a bitter taste.
Only Linda’s best friend Kelly (Kellycannedpeaches Powellonions) knows about Linda’s synesthesia. Truong is at her best describing their friendship. As little girls they share everything, including a passion for Dolly Parton, a devotion to the baby Jesus, and a crush on the same classmate, Wade (Wadeorangesherbet). Outwardly they go their separate ways in high school, but they remain friends, writing hundreds of letters to one another over the years.
