The Smell Of Other People's Houses

Content Warning: This section discusses teen pregnancy, domestic abuse, sexual abuse of a child, substance use disorder, and mental health conditions.

Ruth is the primary narrator that opens and ends the story. At the beginning of the novel, Ruth is a teenage girl close to 17, coping with life in her stern Catholic grandmother’s household. She introduces the struggles of Coming of Age in Times of Change as she grows up mourning the disruption of her family. Ruth considers Alaska’s statehood a turning point in her life and the cause of her father’s death and her mother’s mental health crisis. In contrast to her sister Lily, Ruth has vivid memories of her parents’ love and their happy family time. These childhood memories and her grandmother’s strictness render Ruth hopeless and heartbroken. She feels her heart “all beat out” (7), dwelling on the past and the way things used to be for her family. Her grandmother imposes strict Catholic values on her that limit her freedom and wound her self-esteem. Ruth leads a restricted life as a young girl and doubts her self-worth.

Through Ruth, the novel explores the experience of teen pregnancy. Motivated by her desire for a sense of self, she pursues a relationship with Ray, a boy from a prosperous Republican family.