Mary Jane
"The best book of the summer." — InStyle
"I LOVED this novel....If you have ever sung along to a hit on the radio, in any decade, then you will devour Mary Jane at 45 rpm." —Nick Hornby
Almost Famous meets Daisy Jones & The Six in this "delightful" (New York Times Book Review) piece of book club fiction about a fourteen-year-old girl’s coming of age in 1970s Baltimore, caught between her straight-laced family and the progressive family she nannies for—who happen to be secretly hiding a famous rock star and his movie star wife for the summer.
In 1970s Baltimore, fourteen-year-old Mary Jane loves cooking with her mother, singing in her church choir, and enjoying her family’s subscription to the Broadway Showtunes of the Month record club. Shy, quiet, and bookish, she’s glad when she lands a summer job as a nanny for the daughter of a local doctor. A respectable job, Mary Jane’s mother says. In a respectable house.
The 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 takeout for dinner. 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. A week after Mary Jane starts, the rock star and his movie star wife move in for a summer that promises unforgettable rock and roll fiction.
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). 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.
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Community Reviews
What’s it about?
This coming of age story takes place in Baltimore during the mid 1970’s. Mary Jane is hired to be the summer babysitter for 5-year-old Izzy Cone, who just moved in down the street. This family is far different from her own family. Mary Jane soon finds herself growing in ways she never dreamed of.
What did it make me think about?
Being a teenager in the 1970’s.
Should I read it?
This book brought back so many memories- and just made me smile. What a fun, easy read! It took me back to babysitting for 50 cents and hour, playing with toddlers, cleaning lots of kitchens, and eating other people’s junk food while talking on the phone after the kids went to bed- the freedom of it all! Unfortunately I did not get to meet rock stars and I could never sing- but I could still relate… Jessica Anya Blau writes about this time in life so well. Definitely pick this book up!
Quote-
“My mother, who had known everything about me since birth- what I ate, when I slept, who my friends were, what music I listened to, and what books I read- suddenly had a stranger at her table. But I was the only one who was aware of the change.”
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