In the Unlikely Event

Summary (from the publisher): In her highly anticipated new novel, Judy Blume, the New York Times # 1 best-selling author of Summer Sisters and of young adult classics such as Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, creates a richly textured and moving story of three generations of families, friends and strangers, whose lives are profoundly changed by unexpected events.

In 1987, Miri Ammerman returns to her hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey, to attend a commemoration of the worst year of her life.

Thirty-five years earlier, when Miri was fifteen, and in love for the first time, a succession of airplanes fell from the sky, leaving a community reeling. Against this backdrop of actual events that Blume experienced in the early 1950s, when airline travel was new and exciting and everyone dreamed of going somewhere, Judy Blume imagines and weaves together a haunting story of three generations of families, friends, and strangers, whose lives are profoundly changed by these disasters. She paints a vivid portrait of a particular time and place — Nat King Cole singing “Unforgettable,” Elizabeth Taylor haircuts, young (and not-so-young) love, explosive friendships, A-bomb hysteria, rumors of Communist threat. And a young journalist who makes his name reporting tragedy. Through it all, one generation reminds another that life goes on.

In the Unlikely Event is a gripping novel with all the hallmarks of Judy Blume's unparalleled storytelling.

 

Review: In 1952, three generations of families, friends, and strangers in Elizabeth, New Jersey experience the life altering experience of three separate plane crashes in their community. At the heart of the story is fifteen year old Miri, whose family and friends' lives are profoundly rocked by the devastating crashes.

 

The perspective of the novel rapidly shifts between nineteen interconnected characters. These include Miri, her family members, her friends, and others. These quick-paced transitions allowed the reader to move throughout the community of Elizabeth and gain a more full understanding of the events taking place and the interrelated nature of the characters, but it was also complex to follow and remember who everyone was and how everyone was related. Additionally, it meant that many characters and relationships were left largely undeveloped and unexplored. Furthermore, at times the novel seemed to drag, weighed down by the well over a dozen different narrative voices. Not surprisingly, considering Blume's best selling young adult novels, Miri's voice, which is the dominant perspective throughout the novel, is the most convincing and the one I found most personally relatable. Blume does an excellent job of portraying the uncertainties of a teenager navigating first love, loss, and major changes. Other characters and relationships were less well developed and less likeable.

 

It was shocking to learn that the crashes were actual events and to imagine the loss of life and the terror that must have shook the community to have so many tragic plane crashes happen so quickly together. Such as Christina, who witnesses one of the crashes: "she smelled something terrible, something burned or burning. What was it? She sniffed her arms, a handful of her hair. It was coming from her [...]. All of her smelled terrible. Maybe she would always smell that way, a reminder of what she'd seen" (149). In a way, Christina is correct about never being able to remove the impact of the experience, as each character is permanently affected by the events. Blume's characters all respond differently to the tragedies, some becoming heroes, others developing psychological insecurities, other confronting the tenuous nature of life by changing course.

 

Blume has captured the world of the 1950s and her characters experience young love, loss, failed relationships, and blooming careers. Through it all, their daily life is punctuated by the series of plane crashes, tragedies that make them fearful, but also prove that life goes on. Although this novel is historical fiction, the sense of enduring life in the face of unspeakable tragedy feels particularly apropos for modern readers, who are increasingly exposed to random acts of violent loss.  The title, which refers to the flight attendants' instruction of 'in the unlikely event' of a crash, refers directly to the three unlikely events that pierce this novel. But they also refer to life itself, which is all a series of unlikely events: "My dad says unlikely events aren't all bad. There are good ones, too" (394).

 

Stars: 3