Dirtbags is a novel about reckoning--with one's past, one's choices, and one's expectations for the future. Spider is a scrappy kid growing up in rural B.C., and, when a tragic event causes her world to implode, she heads to Vancouver for solace, distraction, and experience. We witness a shifting morality as Spider moves through chaos and anarchy, often of her own choosing, with no certainty of truth besides what is found in brief encounters. She soaks up the world around her, getting swept up in an accelerated scene of punk music, partying, booze and drugs, but she is forever dogged by a nagging question from her past: When everything in your life is fleeting, what do you hold onto? Dirtbags deals with the bonds between women, the cycle of poverty, self-destruction, loss of family, the outlaw code, and the fragile beauty of the human condition. This is Teresa McWhirter's follow-up novel to Some Girls Do

Mode of access: World Wide Web