Over the course of a Baltimore summer, Mary Jane introduces her new household to the concepts of clean laundry, balanced meals, and bedtime stories. And for those of us who came of age in the 1970s, as Mary Jane does, it’s a wise, funny, and beautiful snapshot of this tender and transformational time. It's a cliché to say this, of course, but Blau’s talent for taking an old axiom and flipping it upside down and inside out is what makes Mary Jane - and Blau’s five other books - so much fun to read. But as soon as Mary Jane walks through the front door, she discovers that looks can be deceiving. In a respectable house, for a respectable doctor, a psychiatrist. A respectable job, according to her mother. Until she lands a summer job as a nanny for the Cone family, that is. At 14, Mary Jane is both a girl and an old woman. She cooks with her mother, sings in the church choir, and knows the lyrics to practically every Broadway showtune ever written. Mary Jane, the title character of Jessica Anya Blau’s latest novel, is a nice girl.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |