As Mary Jane stands on the cusp of finding out who she is, the sense evoked by Blau is so tangible that the reader vividly recalls it too – that feeling of heady freedom, that your parents don’t always know who you are, that your future is what you make it… Wrap this intoxicating feeling up with a long, hot summer and the nostalgia is almost unbearable. I loved this book so much! It is gloriously summery and packed with bitter-sweet nostalgia – although I don’t remember 1975 personally, the book captures that moment when, as a teenager, you start to find your place in the adult world and the possibilities suddenly feel infinite.
This is a summer that none of them will ever forget – and one that changes Mary Jane forever. Also in the house are rock star Jimmy and his movie star wife, Sheba – there to hide from the media while Jimmy gets psychiatric support from Dr Cone. The book tells the tale of the summer that she goes to work for the unconventional and chaotic Cone family, looking after their five year-old daughter, Izzy. Mary Jane is the story of a fourteen year-old girl living in Baltimore in 1975 – she’s a good middle-class girl who sings in the church choir and helps her Mum keep the house spick and span. What an absolutely perfect novel to read just as the British summer time finally kicks in! Yes, I realise that has probably jinxed the weather now for the foreseeable future, but this is a gorgeous novel of long, hot, summer days and will make the perfect beach read this year. Caught between the lifestyle she’s always known and the future she’s only just realized is possible, Mary Jane will arrive at September with a new idea about what she wants out of life, and what kind of person she’s going to be.Ī nostalgic trip into the 1970’s, MARY JANE is a timeless coming of age story about finding yourself, all wrapped up with lots of humour, a dash of teenage rebellion and plenty of rock and roll. Over the course of the summer, Mary Jane introduces her new household to crisply ironed clothes and a family dinner schedule and has a front-row seat to a liberal world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll (not to mention group therapy). A week after Mary Jane starts, the rock star and his movie star wife-Jimmy and Sheba-move in.
And even more troublesome (were Mary Jane’s mother to know, which she does not): the doctor is a psychiatrist who has cleared his summer for one important job-helping a famous rock star dry out. The Cone house may look respectable on the outside, but inside it’s a literal and figurative mess: clutter on every surface, Impeachment: Now More Than Ever bumper stickers on the doors, cereal and takeaway for dinner.
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