What fourteen year old girl doesn't want to be the confidant of her beautiful, charismatic mother?! Adrienne Brodeur is no exception. It's clear that she feels a sense of guilt almost for being born on the same day as her brother Christopher who died....like she has to make up for that somehow to her mother. But when Malabar begins and affair with her husband's best friend Ben, Rennie (as her mother calls her) brings the secret straight to her daughter for safe-keeping. Thus begins a decades long betrayal of Rennie's step-father and Ben's wife, Lily with Rennie trying to protect and cover her mother's tracks. Once in college, Rennie feels less of the strain of their deceit until she meets Ben's son, Jack and falls head over heels in love. Eventually everything is revealed but Malabar remains impervious to the extent of damage that she has wrought on those around her, right to the end. Excellent memoir.....I wanted to pull Rennie aside and tell her, "this isn't your fault" as she clearly felt that she was partly to blame in her mother's affair.