Whichever of My Parents' Gods Will Take Me

Abstract

This novella titled Whichever of My Parents' Gods will Take Me is about a young woman named Ruth growing up in a bicultural home in post-World War II Detroit, Michigan as she trains for her first marathon. Told from a first-person lyrical point-of-view, the story seeks to capture Ruth's development as a runner and young woman through her voice and sensory perception. This novella takes the form of a triptych with three discreet sections in Ruth's life - adolescence, young motherhood, and old age - that cohere the life of a woman while putting Ruth's myriad voices in dialogue with one another. This is a story about a young woman obsessed with running at a time where it was both strange and dangerous for a young woman to run alone at dawn - but also about bravery, freedom, and what she saw as she ran through a changing and healing city.