The Age of Reason

The Worcester Tornado of June 9, 1953 blew seven-year-old Edith Brynn out of her bedroom window and began a year of upheaval and change. All around her, things were happening that first-grade had not equipped her to understand. Her mother, Kitt, was having a nervous breakdown brought on by a third pregnancy, extramarital intrigues, and the conflicts between her career as a translator of Russian poetry, and motherhood. Edith's father, Arthur, a devoted Communist, and veteran of the Lincoln Brigade, was caught up in the McCarthy-era Red Scare and in danger of losing his job as a college professor. Edith, who idealized both parents and treasured the stories, books, music, and culture that they took time out of their busy lives to share with her, both did and did not want to understand why neither parent had much time or attention for her or her little brothers. Though she was a keen observer, she often preferred to retreat to a rich world of make-believe and to her beloved books. Finally, the devastating and preventable death of her baby brother hurtles her into 'The Age of Reason' the stage of life when a child knows and can no longer ignore the difference between what is true and what they wish to be true.