Tom describes his mother as "a work in progress." (Page 249) Her barely nodding relationship with truth makes it possible for her to re-invent herself at the drop of a hat. Tom says it has taken him thirty years to recognize just how formidable a warrior she is. Everyone, he says, underestimates her talents and her cunning.
Lila's real life begins in the mountains of Georgia to an evil-tempered drunk of a father and a nondescript deadpan of a mother. Orphaned at sixteen, Lila goes to Atlanta and redefines herself as the daughter of a genteel banker and a refined socialite mother. Tom relates how his father, Henry Wingo, presents himself to Lila as a large landowner. They are wed, and Lila learns the reality of the Wingo estate. That only makes Lila begin.....
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