How do you recover your life after a youthful indiscretion makes you a pop culture punchline? Jane Young reinvents herself but finds that avoiding her past may not be the path to happiness.
In a stupid scandal with a much-older married congressman, political intern Aviva destroys her intended future. She successfully completes her college degree but finds no one will hire her, no matter how far away from her Florida past. So she changes her name, cuts ties, and moves to Maine to start a business as a wedding and events planner. Eventually, though, the past is bound to catch up with her.
I enjoyed this book quite a bit, as I expected - I've loved Zevin in the past, and she's again at top form here. This could have been a fluffy light chick lit kind of book, but she gives Aviva/Jane more depth with a heart and a brain. The revelation of her past isn't a real tragedy for Jane, and how she chooses to face it down is a real 21st Century triumph.
Showing posts with label scandal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scandal. Show all posts
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Thursday, February 23, 2017
The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson
Where, you ask, is the most dangerous place on earth? The American high school, of course.
This book is considered a novel, but it's almost a series of short stories. Perspective constantly shifts between students, and only a young, new English teacher pops up again and again with an embroiled outsider's perspective on the kids' drama.
The book takes these students from 8th grade through senior year. They study (or not), they party, they get in trouble, and they try to figure out what the world has to offer. We see their actions through the lens of other students (and their teacher), we see their roles in the social caste system, and sometimes we see things from their perspective, too - which often brings new information that alters your reaction to their behavior.
Pretty much they're all self-absorbed shits (they're teenagers - that's the default setting!). But Miss Nicholl isn't too far distanced from her own youth, and her naivety helps illustrate that maturity isn't a threshold you step over, it's more of a series of steps toward an unattainable goal.
The roiling dramas of high school is a near universal touchstone, even if you didn't grow up in this new, technological age, and this is a really, really good book full of complex characters and horrifying, realistic events.
It's being marketed as an adult novel, but it's very much like many of the young adult books being published today (I think the difference is the insertion of an adult rather than an all-teen perspective).
This book is considered a novel, but it's almost a series of short stories. Perspective constantly shifts between students, and only a young, new English teacher pops up again and again with an embroiled outsider's perspective on the kids' drama.
The book takes these students from 8th grade through senior year. They study (or not), they party, they get in trouble, and they try to figure out what the world has to offer. We see their actions through the lens of other students (and their teacher), we see their roles in the social caste system, and sometimes we see things from their perspective, too - which often brings new information that alters your reaction to their behavior.
Pretty much they're all self-absorbed shits (they're teenagers - that's the default setting!). But Miss Nicholl isn't too far distanced from her own youth, and her naivety helps illustrate that maturity isn't a threshold you step over, it's more of a series of steps toward an unattainable goal.
The roiling dramas of high school is a near universal touchstone, even if you didn't grow up in this new, technological age, and this is a really, really good book full of complex characters and horrifying, realistic events.
It's being marketed as an adult novel, but it's very much like many of the young adult books being published today (I think the difference is the insertion of an adult rather than an all-teen perspective).
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