Abby, My Love by Lee Hadley

First published: 1985

Subjects: Family, friendship, love and romance, and sexual issues

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Psychological realism

Time of work: The 1980’s

Recommended Ages: 13-18

Locale: A fictional suburban town

Principal Characters:

• Chip Martin, a teenager who is trying to understand the nature of love
• Jean Martin, Chip’s mother, who is also falling in love
• Abigail (Abby) Morris, Chip’s friend, whose father has been sexually abusing her for years
• Pete Morris, Abby’s younger, tomboy sister
• Dr. Morris, Abby’s father, a dentist who wants to keep Abby for himself
• Peg Morris, Abby’s inadequate, self-denying mother
• Jake, a former judge involved with Jean Martin
• Mr. Hansen, an influential high school English teacher

Form and Content

Abby, My Love trusts its first-person narrator, Chip Martin, to describe everything as truthfully as possible, a difficult job for a young man growing and changing as the book progresses. The novel is a quick read, perhaps because chapters are relatively short, as is the book itself. The presentation is interesting, starting with Abby’s high school graduation and class valedictory address, then flashing back as far as the eighth grade for Chip and the seventh grade for Abby. Time is generally presented in a linear manner after that until near the end of the novel, when flashbacks occur again.

The reader knows from the start that this is a book about families. Chip Martin’s father was a jet pilot shot down over Vietnam and never recovered. Chip has only his mother, who is remarkably self-sufficient. Chip meets Pete Morris in a local park, and slightly afterward her sister, Abby. This is the beginning of a friendship with both sisters that lasts throughout the novel, up to Chip’s return home after his first year in college.

Chip must deal with growing up, with Abby’s “coldness,” with his sudden interest in poetry and plays, with his mother’s romantic interest in Jake (whom he thinks is “almost” old enough to be his grandfather), and finally with Abby’s confession to him about her father’s sexual abuse and her protectiveness of Pete all these years.

Chip’s reactions to events in his life are realistic: He is often confused and angry, and he does not know what to do with what he discovers. Chip placidly accepts his mother’s plans to marry Jake but is often frustrated by Abby’s changing moods. They do not actually date, but they do spend enough time together for Dr. Morris to suggest to Mrs. Martin that Chip should turn his attention elsewhere, which greatly angers Chip. Eventually, the incest becomes unbearable, and Abby confronts her mother. Because Chip is the narrator, however, readers are not privy to that scene. It is only known that while Mrs. Morris does not deny the abuse, she thinks that the family must stay intact and that her husband’s dentistry practice will suffer if the secret is discovered. In other words, she either is in denial or does not care about what happens to Abby.

When Chip visits Abby at home, he notes how odd and unsettling it feels in their house: Pete, who is usually running around, is quiet; Abby has a blank stare on her face; Dr. Morris only reads the newspaper; and Mrs. Morris seems nervous and agitated. Chip sees this again when he visits with his mother, a travel agent who has prepared vacation plans for them.

Even outside her house, Abby can be thrown into a cold, vacant place by the wrong words (“abuse”) or by Chip or anyone else coming too close to her. She only truly acts alive when fantasizing, when she and Chip create president Millard Fillmore’s first wife, “Mildred.” It becomes a standing joke, a place of reprieve for both Chip and Abby that they allow no one else to enter.

Chip learns about love on multiple levels, both within families and without, and in the last two or three pages, Abby confesses that she loves Chip. She has moved beyond Pete and the rest of her family. She also faces the physical breakup of her family: Her father is teaching at a dental college in Georgia, and the other members of her family are in therapy in Collinsville.

The ending is not happy in a predictable sense. Abby needs time to deal with her trauma, and Chip is willing to give it to her, but no one knows what will happen to either of them in college. Part of the message is that Dr. Morris’ evil has been done. One cannot predict if it will be erased.

Critical Context

Most readers and teachers know that there is no one called “Hadley Irwin.” Two writers, Lee Hadley and Ann Irwin, joined to share their names and talents. Irwin died in 1995, and readers assume that Hadley will continue writing on her own.

In some ways, this novel was an anomaly for the authors. Most of their books are for younger readers, and many do not utilize psychological realism. Abby, My Love came out in the middle of a trend in young adult literature toward examining incest and other forms of sexual abuse. Other topics of serious concern only started to appear in the 1970’s, titles dealing with suicide, anorexia, scarification, madness, and rape. A similar title on which Hadley and Irwin collaborated is What About Grandma, a story about how old people are often seen as disposable in the United States.

Chris Crutcher, Norma Fox Mazer, and Francesca Lia Block have all written young adult novels about incest. It is telling that none of them, and not Abby, My Love, seem sufficient to deal with the incest theme alone. There are always major subjects or plot twists added to this main theme. Perhaps the novel should have been more grim in order to make its point.