Tuesday, 20 February 2018

Young Jane Young - Gabreille Zevin


 











Got to hand it to Gabrielle Zevin, she never writes the same book twice. This one is odd but very readable. Odd, not in the subject matter, but in the quirky style.
 Aviva Grossman is 20, a young intern who falls in love with a congressman. Guess what, he doesn't love her, but he likes sex (of any kind, a lot). So that brief affair - will it ruin her life? Well... let's go back to the beginning. The first third of the book is told in the voice of Rachel, Aviva's wonderfully portrayed Jewish mother. She worries that her daughter is too fat, too clever too, well - too everything really, and then she finds out about the affair. The second third of the book is told by Aviva's daughter Ruby, in emails to her Indonesian pen-pal. So we get to find out that Ruby doesn't know who Aviva is/was because her Mom is Jane Young, Events Organiser. A name change and flight to another state seemed the best way to go after her youthful affair hit the headlines. And finally, we go back to Young Eviva and the choices she took to get her where she is today, in the style of those children's books where you get to choose the next event. Refreshing to read a different kind of book, even if the subject is as old as the hills. This was a really enjoyable read for me.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Thanks to Amazon who gave me a copy of this book in exchange for a review                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

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