“Am I going to be Okay is an American story with a universal message. Whittam traces her history in the form of stories all too human, and sometimes unhinged family; she throws a rope to the little girl living there, and in adulthood, is able to pull her out to safety, bit by bit.

Her history is peopled with folks from a different time, a time before therapy was acceptable, 12 steps unimaginable and harsh words, husbands and even harsher silences can be spun to appear almost normal. She writes of a mother who would not, or could not, initiate love nor give it without condition. And a father, damn near heroic at times, abusive at others, a survivor with his head down and his sleeves rolled up.

Whittam approaches her past with the clear-eyed tough but sensitive objectivity necessary to untangle the shame from the source. She speaks of the people that affected her life so deeply with an understanding of their time and place in American culture. It is in the telling of this story that Whittam teaches us the difference between just surviving and surviving well.”

— Eric Oesterich