Tom Parks

The View from Below Tom Parks

Robin, aged nine, is visiting the LA suburbs with her parents and asthmatic brother. It's July 1969, the smog is awful, the parents drink all day, and the astronauts are about to land on the moon. Don't get there, she begs them; make a wrong turn. Grown-ups muck everything up, she knows - by seeing more than she can fully understand in the behavior of the adults around her. But when her parents leave her and her brother with an irresponsible babysitter, she steps into the role she resists - on her terms.