HAMILTON, Ohio, Oct. 27, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- A Kentucky horse family with piles of money and blurred moral boundaries make for a wild, sometimes heartbreaking ride. The only daughter of this clan, Patticake, sees her dysfunctional parents for what they really are in the new book, Just Watchin' the Pins Fall (now available through 1stBooks), by P.K. Smith.
George and Cynthia Kennedy do what many people with money do with their babies; they hire a woman to raise their first child. They hire Wilda Mae Ruggins, who gives their daughter the nickname Patticake, which sticks throughout the girl's life. This precocious child realizes early on her parents' twisted ways.
After Cynthia has had enough of sex and her husband, George finds widow Maggie Puckett, who tends to his needs while he supports her and her four children. Cynthia discovers his indiscretions and seduces him, conceiving their second child, Benny.
Patticake witnesses her parents' actions, which are influenced heavily by good Kentucky bourbon, and rebels against them. Smith weaves through Patticake's childhood, adolescence and high school years, painting a picture of a child rising above her high-society status. Through the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War, Patticake's views, the lives of supporting characters and the high-powered Kentucky Derby kingdom bring to light the social class system of the 1960s, where sex, race, gender and class mix together to create an influential brew of human characteristics.
Smith is a high school administrator in Southern Ohio and assistant professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where she earned her Ph.D. Just Watchin' the Pins Fall is her first book. She is currently working on two additional novels.
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