Playing Botticelli

Book excerpt: Godiva Blue thinks she controls the world she has created for her daughter Dylan and herself in a neglected corner of North Florida. While her fellow college activists have become Reagan-era yuppies, Godiva—an elementary-school janitor who is also an avant-garde artist and avowed nonconformist—staunchly refuses to compromise her ideals. Then one day she glances at the wanted posters hanging in her local post office and recognizes the face of a man she hasn’t seen since 1969: Dylan’s father. Shaken, Godiva grabs the poster and takes it home. When 15-year-old Dylan, already secretly chafing against her mother’s out-sized personality, finds the photograph, the discovery rocks the very foundation of their relationship. Fueled by simmering adolescent resentment, Dylan sets out across America to look for the father she’s never known. Left behind and powerless to protect her daughter, Godiva must finally confront the choices she made long ago. By turns funny, scary and reflective, Playing Botticelli follows Godiva and Dylan deep into the uncharted territories of their hearts as they seek that elusive balance between autonomy and family love?