Although the novel provides a critique of the criminal justice system and its treatment of Kenna by compelling her to sign away parental rights as part of her imprisonment, the novel centers its emotional and psychological argument not on Kenna as a convict or as a drunk driver but rather as a mother.

There are fathers in the novel, but they are either absent or flawed. Patrick, for instance, cannot find his way to honest expressions of emotions. He represses his feelings and mistakes throwing punches for emotion. This is a novel that uses the bond between a mother and child to symbolize unconditional love, support, and faith in the integrity of the maternal bond. Ironically, Kenna is shaped by the novel’s only flawed mother-child bond. Kenna’s conversation in prison with her absentee mother as she struggles to secure at least some rights with her daughter marks a difficult moment in the novel. Abandoned by her mother’s on again-off again affections, Kenna finds in her prison friendship with Ivy the mother she always needed, a woman whose compassionate advice and steadying calm provide Kenna with the strength to survive postpartum depression.

Because the first weeks of Kenna’s release center on Mother’s Day, the novel underscores the symbolic importance of that bond.