A Girl with a Bad Reputation

Fourteen-year-old Colleen Hanrahan knows what boys want and is willing to give it to them - on her own terms. An intelligent and proud young woman, Colleen tries to remain above her bad reputation and tells herself it doesn't matter what other people think about her promiscuous behavior, as long as her father - a successful, bullying criminal defense attorney and controlling, bad-tempered alcoholic - doesn't hear about it. She can count on her mother - a family law attorney with whom she shares a secret - to come to her defense, if needed. Born and raised in Newburgh, NY, Colleen is proud of her birthplace and its historical importance. She's concerned, though, about the changing complexion of the city's residents and the "white flight" and resulting deterioration of downtown the arrival of poor blacks from the South is causing. Most disturbing to her is the racism that has emerged in the white community, from which her parents and her father in particular are not immune. Feeling owned by her father the way blacks in the country were once owned as slaves, she identifies with the Civil Rights Movement and begins thinking that becoming a lawyer and, perhaps, a politician and fighting for all oppressed people's civil rights would be a worthwhile thing to do. Set in the mid to late 1960s, Colleen's story unfolds against the backdrop of one of the most pivotal and turbulent times in American history. The events of the decade have a profound affect on her, as do the significant people she meets on her journey to young-adulthood.