The stream-of-consciousness style of this book took a bit to get into, but drags you deep into the head of a young mother trying to find her way. Narrator Daphne is clearly not well as she takes her baby from her 9-to-5 job in San Francisco and drives out to her grandparents’ old trailer in the high desert; once there, she experiences every moment of the joy and boredom of being sole provider for a small child while also dealing poorly with her feelings of loneliness and inability to reunite with her husband (stranded outside the US because of citizenship and visa issues). Her social interactions are mainly with secessionist neighbor Cindy and senior citizen Alice, and the two relationships come together in a very interesting way. I really liked the realistic and sympathetic illustration of how the mental state of a first-time mother could spiral downwards in the absence of outside help, and although the Cindy-and-Alice plotlines were a little weird, their impact on Daphne was really well done and just what the story needed.