Here is another book recommendation. I find myself drawn to three types of books during the pandemic, as I seek solace and escape. I am drawn to science fiction and fantasy novels that allow me to escape this world and show me that other worlds are possible. I am also drawn to mystery novels where an able detective navigates a dangerous and corrupt world, living up to his moral code and resolving the case in the end. And I am drawn to contemporary novels “where good people reliably find happiness in a somewhat amusing fashion,” to quote Elinor Lipman, one of the best practitioners of the genre. Favorite authors in this last genre include Lipman, Nick Hornsby, and Stephen McCauley. I just read a great new book in the genre, and I am ready to add that author to this list of favorites.
Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau is a delight. The narrator and lead character is a 14-year-old girl growing up in a very conservative house in a Baltimore suburb in the mid-1970s. Her mom lets her become a “summer nanny” for a young girl in the neighborhood because the father is a doctor. Little does the mother know he is a psychiatrist and a bit of a hippy. He may even be Jewish. Mary Jane is taken aback by the chaotic, informal, and warm Cone Household – so different from her own. And then the chaos and the warmth increase as a rock star and his movie star wife move into the house so Dr. Cone can treat the rock star for heroin addiction.
The joy of the novel is Mary Jane’s voice, as she encounters a way of life so different from how she has been raised and starts to rethink who she is and how she should live in the world. I also love the novel for how kind it is, even to the characters who should be unsympathetic.
I am so glad to discover Blau. If her other books are half as good as this one, I have a lot of good reading to do.