Back Roads

Content Warning: The source material and this guide contain discussions of sexual and physical abuse, and incest.

Abandonment is defined as an action that leaves a person feeling left behind, undesired, insecure, or discarded. At the beginning of the novel, Harley feels abandoned by his mother, who has been incarcerated for murdering his father. Harley, as the eldest of the Altmyer children, has become the de facto head of the household, left to raise his sisters on his own, a responsibility he feels utterly unprepared for. His sense of abandonment is complicated by the fact that he feels he abandoned his mother as well by not dealing with his abusive father himself. As the novel progresses, however, new truths come to the surface, revealing just how profoundly Harley has been abandoned by both his parents.

Harley often considers the reason why his parents got married, assuming it was because Bonnie was pregnant with him. However, as his memories of his parents’ relationship surface, it becomes clear that there was a deep love between Bonnie and her husband. Indeed, Bonnie refused to let her lawyer use physical or sexual abuse as a defense in her trial. When Harley visits Bonnie in prison for the first time since her conviction, he is surprised to find her healthy and content, which makes him wonder if his mother wants to be in prison.