With or Without You (2013) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

show spoilers

People edit see section history

• Domenica Ruta: Author / narrator
• Kathi Ruta: Nikki's mother
• Katie: Add a description of this character.
• Vic
• Michael Corleone
• Dave
• Vladimir Nabokov
• Julie
• Ronald Reagan
• Lexi
• Ganja
• Bert
• Anna Post
• Kathleen
• Fafa
• Crisanne
• Woody
• Mrs. King
• Mrs. Collins
• William Shakespeare
• Stacey
• Maggie
• Oliver
• Donald
• Elda
• Dad
• Nastya M.
• Nonna
• Seamus
• Tyson
• Cecily
• Sister Agnes
• Carla
• Beth
• Lucy
• Saul
• Jimmy
• Aunt Sandy
• Leah
• Zazy
• Apple Annie
• Rita Ruta
• Lisa
• Aunt Penny
• Raúl
• STEVE
• Richie
• Zeke
• Jagger

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Massachusetts
• Texas

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Addiction: Describe this theme.
• Mother-Daughter Relationships

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Domenica Ruta (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Barbara M. Bachman (Designer)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: HV5831.M4 R88 2013
• Dewey: 362.29

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Parenting & Families › Family Relationships › Motherhood
• Books › Biographies & Memoirs › Memoirs

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Book Review: One day in the early 1980s, Kathi Ruta put her daughter Domenica in the passenger seat of the lime-green hatchback she called the "Shitbox.” To Domenica’s surprise, the car actually started. From her home in Danvers, Mass., a working-class suburb of Boston, Kathi drove to the residence of her brother’s ex-girlfriend, a woman named Josie. Domenica was only 4 or 5 at the time, but she recalls what happened next vividly: Kathi wielded a fireplace poker and, with all the torque her zaftig 5-foot frame could muster, brought it down on the windshield of Josie’s car, an act of retribution for some slight now lost to family history.“My mother’s Italian-American family had a thuggish, moronic code of honor that everyone violated as often as they upheld it,” Domenica Ruta writes at the outset of her powerful new memoir, With or Without You. “This windshield job was an act of loyalty. I learned as I grew up that my mother would demand nothing less of me.”