Florida Summary
Christine Schutt

Florida Summary

At the age of five, Alice Fivey's father dies in a mysterious car accident and she loses her mother to a mental asylum at the age of ten. Orphaned, Alice is left to live with relatives, and is moved from one set of relatives to the next. As she slowly matures into a young woman, her caregivers shape Alice's identity.

Alice leads an unstructured, carefree life with her mother, but together their lives are unstable and uncertain. Alice never wears fashionable new clothing, but wears clothing that her mother makes. Alice doesn't take luxurious vacations with her mother. She dreams of moving to Florida. The instability of the household is further eroded by her mother's bad habit of entering into relationships with foul-tempered men who spend their time drinking rather than working. When it becomes clear that Alice's mother cannot care for Alice properly, her mother is sent to a... View more of the Florida Summary