Book: Five quarters of the orange

I hated the mother, and I showed it all with the sophistication inherent in my age. I tossed mother all sorts of excuses to cling to me. <...> I broke it hundreds of established rules, and each violation has always evoked in her rage and despair. She clung to their stupid rules because of what they used to keep us in check. Without them, it would be the same as we, the orphaned, the lost.
Of course, I didn't know it.