Review: Young Jane Young

Aviva Grossman is ready to go out and conquer the world--she's young, smart, and pretty, and has recently been hired as an intern for a handsome, popular Congressman. When she and her boss begin an affair, she can't resist writing about it online (anonymously, of course). But it doesn't stay hidden for long. While the congressman is able to save his re-election campaign and his marriage, Aviva is vilified and despised. She decides her only option is to start a new life, so Jane moves to remote Maine and becomes a wedding planner. She lives a quiet life with her daughter Ruby, until she considers running for mayor. Can the secrets of Jane's past stay hidden or is it time for the truth to come out?

Like many readers, I adored Gabrielle Zevin's sweet and quirky The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. So I was excited to read her newest novel. But I must confess that I picked this book up and put it down a few times before finally sticking with it because Young Jane Young is very different in tone and plot from A.J. Fikry. 

Zevin uses several different perspectives to tell this story, including Aviva's mother, Jane's precocious daughter Ruby, and even the wife of the congressman. Each character is fascinating and uniquely written. I especially loved the relationship between Jane and Ruby, although Ruby's narrative, which is told through emails with an international pen pal, is sometimes a bit much.

This book strikes a great balance. It's obviously about some current and difficult issues, like the way women are treated in the media and the way that men can seemingly escape scandal without consequence, while women are blacklisted in their fields. But it's not a heavy book; there is a lot of humor to be found on these pages and you can almost see it play out in your head like a zany comedy on a movie screen. Young Jane Young is a fun and often delightful read that will also leave you thinking about the cost of being a woman in public who makes mistakes and the double standard for men and women in our modern culture.


Young Jane Young
By Gabrielle Zevin
Algonquin Books August 2017
320 pages
Read via Netgalley

Review: The Storied Life of AJ Fikry

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

By Gabrielle Zevin

Algonquin Books April 2014

260 pages

Read via Netgalley

A.J. Fikry has resigned himself to his life. His wife has died and sales at his beloved Island Books are not doing well. He deals with his depression by staying alone and snapping at the people he must encounter. But everything changes with the arrival of two females - Amelia, a publishing company sales rep and the baby girl who is left inside his bookstore because her mother wants her to grow up with people who love books.  

This is one of those books that is gloriously and unashamedly written for people who love books.“They had only ever discussed books but what, in this life, is more personal than books?” Each chapter is named for a short story and begins with A.J. explaining why he loves this particular one. The reader gets a detailed look into the world of running a bookstore through A.J.'s eyes and about the publishing industry through Amelia's experiences. 

 Zevin pulls a bait and switch at the beginning of the novel by starting from the point of view of Amelia. We see the island, the bookstore, and A.J. through her fresh eyes as she makes her very first visit for her job. After this first chapter, the narrative switches to our favorite ornery bookseller. This technique is great because it gives us an overview of the island that we wouldn't get from A.J. because he has lived there for so long. The brilliance of it, though, is that as we read more about A.J., we are also impatiently waiting for Amelia's return.

The character development in this story seems so authentic. A.J. slowly thaws and we see him taking big, courageous steps as he decides if he can love someone again after the loss of his wife. Even the minor characters - A.J.'s sister-in-law Ismay and a local cop - become characters you root for and want to read more about. Zevin excels at making you feel things deeply. Her writing is simple but perfectly captures the emotions of A.J. and the rest of the beloved characters. It's one of those glorious experiences where you will laugh and you will cry and you won't feel the least bit guilty for either because these characters seem real to you.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is a must-read for people who love books. It reminds us to open up to love and to good books. It proclaims that the right story in the right moment can heal our pain or bring us joy again. This is the sort of book that bibliophiles will keep close by, so that they can read it over and over again.