It IS a great exploration of class, race, lifestyle and gender stereotypes from the era. This is a slice-of-life story where the enjoyment comes from the characters and their experiences together. It IS NOT a novel with a huge “what will happen” plot that pulls readers through its pages. Avocado-colored appliances, macrame, and President Ford references abound. It IS a literary trip back to the 1970s. Despite the 14-year-old protagonist, Mary Jane has mature themes well suited for mature readers.
At least they get the next bit right when they call it a “funny, wise, and tender novel about a fourteen-year-old girl’s coming of age in 1970s Baltimore.” Despite the bold publisher blurb, it IS NOT “Almost Famous” meets Daisy Jones and the Six. 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. 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).
A week after Mary Jane starts, the rock star and his movie star wife move in. 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. 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. A respectable job, Mary Jane’s mother says. Shy, quiet, and bookish, she’s glad when she lands a summer job as a nanny for the daughter of a local doctor. 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 Show Tunes of the Month record club.
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