Leavings: Memoir of a 1920s Hollywood Love Child

begins with Megan's birth in 1927. Abandoned in the hospital as a newborn and made a ward of the city of Los Angeles, -at home, at school, or even at church. She sleeps on a cot at the foot of her foster sister's bed. She is asked to leave first grade after crying for two weeks. She never gets saved at church. Even her name comes and goes, depending on under whose care she falls. -being left by others and being forced to leave. We follow this odd but lovable child, adolescent, and young adult through a solitary life of acute observation and search for identity, from finding her birth father to meeting her half siblings, an early marriage, children, meeting the woman who will be the love of her life and, finally, divorce and freedom. Through beautiful prose, she imparts astute commentary on political events with vivid descriptions of the social and moral views of the times. Each encounter shapes her experience of the world, as we witness her journey to a life of belonging and acceptance, a woman who in the end becomes closer to being the person she wants to be.