Book ~ "Cadillac Road" (2017) Kristin Andrychuk

From Goodreads ~ Starting in the 1950s, "Cadillac Road" is the story of Sharon Desjardins: from her earliest childhood memories leaving Northern Quebec and a violent father to adventures in Buffalo and Crystal Beach with her mother and younger sister, Gloria, to dreams of escaping claustrophobic poverty in shabby Grenville by going to Toronto and marrying a wealthy lawyer whom she doesn’t love, having turned down local boy Clinton McClary because she doesn’t think he’ll amount to much. 

In the end, depressed and on pills, Sharon realizes she needs to be true to her heart, abandons her marriage and takes to the road, a road that could very well lead back to her original hometown of Cadillac. 

In the mid-1950s, Muriel left her abusive husband in Northern Quebec and headed home to Buffalo with her two young daughters, Sharon and Gloria.  She lived with her mother but eventually found herself homeless across the border in rural Ontario.  She met and married Jimmy and went on to have children with him.  Because Jimmy didn't work all that much, they lived in poverty ... never having enough to buy nice clothes, a nice house , a nice car or enough food.  Seeing how much her family struggled, Sharon swore she would never have the same life as her mother.

As soon as she graduated from high school, Sharon escaped Grenville and headed off to Toronto to start her new life.  She got a job in an office and eventually married a rich young lawyer who gave her everything she ever wanted.  But then she discovered that having money and freedom isn't all she thought it would be and started to wonder if it was worth it.

This is the first book I've read by this author and I enjoyed it.  I liked the writing style ... it was written in first person perspective from Sharon's point of view.  I also liked the story and it drew me in from the beginning. 

Sharon and her family never had much but Sharon had pleasant memories from the early days.  After Jimmy and Muriel got married, Sharon didn't understand why they had to keep having kids when they couldn't support the ones they had.  It kept adding more and more responsibility onto Sharon ... and she did what she had to to survive until she was old enough to leave home.