Off the Shelf: Frankie

This is a story of a woman looking back on her life, having never been at the center of it. The main character is Frankie, who has never been sure of herself to take center stage. All her life she found herself on the wrong side of being judged harshly.

Ireland in 1950 was the year that Frankie Howe’s life changed forever, setting on a trajectory that she could never have imagined possible. A very tragic accident places Frankie in a traumatic situation as a very young girl, one that pulled the rug out from under her life and resulted in her having to be more self- sufficient and mature than most girls her age.

At the age of 84, she finally finds someone who listens to her. Enter Damian, a young Irish caretaker who arrives at her London flat, there to keep on eye on her as she recovers from a fall. A memory is sparked and the past crackles to life as Damian listened to the story Frankie has kept stored away all these years.

It is hard not to like Frankie as a character and feel so much empathy for her as a young girl married off to an older man, a man of the church, but most definitely not showing caring Christian ways. The failure of the marriage, not Frankie’s failure, led her to live in London and then on to New York.