“My name is Coco Twain and I have never been happy about it. My mother borrowed my first name from Coco Chanel because she thought it was so clever, so French. Little did she know that the fashion designer’s name was actually Gabrielle and ‘Coco’ was nothing more than a ridiculous nickname. I’ve had to endure countless jokes about being a “hot drink” and quips about marshmallows. Had I been named Gabrielle, I could have been exotic or at least interesting. But that’s neither here nor there. Having a last name of Twain was an even bigger burden. Mom actually believed she married into a family related to Mark Twain. When I learned enough to know that Twain’s real name was Samuel Clemens, I tried to tell her, but she wouldn’t listen. She liked to brag about our ancestry “all the way back to Mark Twain.”
So here I was, Coco Twain growing up feeling totally fictitious.
Coco Twain may be fictitious, but she’s fun to read.
Synopsis:
Coco Twain was not the type of teenager who had any intentions of actually getting involved with the criminal element although she readily agreed that she and her best friend Sonja Reynolds were fascinated by the life of notorious killer Charles Starkweather. However, getting involved was exactly what happened when a couple of outrageous, yet humane, fugitives from the Oklahoma State Prison invaded their world in rural Oklahoma. The year was 1958 when Buford and Al moved into Sonja’s house and took up cooking and gardening. The girls managed to visit Pawhuska, Ponca City, and McAlester, go swimming at the local swimming hole, and, basically, continue their former lives with one big difference: they were harboring wanted criminals. Coco found herself hiding the truth and learning a good deal about life and friendship in this funny coming-of-age story.
