Kate Riley, the protagonist of Santa Fe, New Mexico author Lynn Stegner’s latest novel, has had a rough go of it. As she faces exploratory brain surgery for what may or may not be a brain tumor, she reflects back on a life not so much lived as pursued.

Growing up in a small Saskatchewan town in the 1940s is made almost unbearable when 10-year-old Kate’s doting father dies of cancer, leaving her to be raised by her manipulative, psychologically damaged mother (who starts every day by telling the girl “I’ll be dead by the time you get home from school”). Not surprisingly, by the ripe old age of 16 Kate is hightailing it out of the Prairies, leaving behind the first in a long string of men with whom she attempts to regain some of the love that has been missing since the death of her beloved “Poppy.”

Kate is an awful, unlikable character. She falls in and out of love with gusto, but spares little feeling for the children produced by the relationships, abandoning four kids (each fathered by a different man) to be raised by anyone but herself. She is vain, vacillating between admiration of her stereotypical Irish beauty and internal battles with “Ramona Moon,” her fat, slatternly alter ego. The result is that it’s hard to care about her, which could prompt some readers to give up on the character, and the book. This would be a shame, as Stegner’s meaty, eloquent prose, and the book’s satisfying conclusion, make Kate’s story ultimately worthy of seeing through to the end.