Taking Terri Mueller

A good example of a book which while plain and unremarkable in many ways poses and provokes some fascinating questions. Terri and her father have lived together and on the move through America since she was four. It is only now that she begins to ask questions about her past and her mother who apparently died in a car crash. Gradually she discovers that her parents had divorced, that her mother was on the point of taking her abroad with another man when her father kidnapped her. The intriguing questions of right and wrong are set off as Terri is reunited with her mother and 'lost' relations and begins to resent her father's denial of this rich family life. Neither of the parents is seen as being good or bad; it's felt to be an awful problems with the father's unforgivable but understandable action and the mother's deep hurt at the eight-year loss of her daughter. Terri is left having to decide which one of her parents to stay with in a way which is satisfying honest.