Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau
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.
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.
Review: In 1970s Baltimore, fourteen-year-old Mary Jane is excited to land a summer job as a nanny for the daughter of a local doctor. While her mother deems the job respectable, inside the house is a very different scene: clutter and chaos in every room, spoiled food in the fridge, and meals that consist of cereal or takeout. And the doctor is a psychiatrist who has cleared his summer schedule to help a famous rock star get clean through unorthodox methods: the rock star and his movie star wife move into the house. Slowly, Mary Jane becomes an integral part of the unorthodox household. Rather than just caring for Izzy, she starts shopping and preparing meals for the whole household, following her mother's family dinner schedule. In return, Mary Jane is introduced to a more liberal world of sex, drugs, rock and roll, and group therapy. Caught between the conservative and rigid world of her parents and the new welcoming and accepting world she has found, Mary Jane finds that she has a lot to contemplate about what she wants out of life.
I was disappointed by this book not because the book did anything wrong but because it was falsely advertised as an Almost Famous meets Daisy Jones and the Six and it is most decidedly not either of those. Mary Jane does find herself introduced to a world very different from her upbringing. But she basically spends her time babysitting and cooking. The most scandalous thing she does is allow them to buy her a few outfits and go to a record store. And while she does witness things she shouldn't, Mary Jane is well treated and not encouraged to try or do anything she doesn't want to. At heart, she is still her parents' well-behaved, well-intentioned daughter that is simply trying to her summer job well.
I did love how kind her newfound household is to Mary Jane - to the point that it almost didn't feel believable! While they are flawed people themselves, they seem genuinely appreciative of Mary Jane's efforts to clean and cook and fully embrace her as a friend. It almost didn't see believable that a rock star with a drug problem would be so supportive, gracious, and appropriate in his behavior towards a young, naive girl. Likewise, Mary Jane, despite being only 14 is such a wonderful mother figure in this book! She cooks complicated meals and patiently shows her charge Izzy how to prepare different dishes in such a mature and kind way. It almost didn't seem believable that she could have handled it all better than most grown wives and mothers.
Stars: 3
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