sentences:  In a 2007 interview with "Time Out Chicago", Wycoff said that the stories were based on the "political truth" that "single mothers fall through the cracks in this country, and the cracks grow in proportion to these women's economic challenges, making inaccessible the so-called American Dream".She explained that, though she drew on her own experiences as a single mother, the stories were not autobiographical.Michael Upchurch of "The Seattle Times" wrote that the book recognizes "how even the most toxic family connections have some kind of love threaded through them", and notes that "its heroine, even in the worst circumstances, keeps fierce hold of her dignity".