Review by New York Times Review
JUDY BLUME ISN'T just revered, she's revolutionary. She has dared to write about so-called taboo topics for children and young adults - racism ("Iggie's House"), bullying ("Blubber"), sex ("Forever...") - and has done it so honestly that her work is both beloved and banned. Now, in her first novel for adults in 17 years, she uses her own young life as source material, revisiting a time when three planes crashed over eight weeks in her hometown, during an indelible period of history - the beginning of the 1950s, just as the glossy suburban dream of picket fences and safe conformity jutted up against unrelenting Cold War paranoia. "In the Unlikely Event" is told in a large chorus of voices, but at the center is Miri Ammerman, a ninth-grade Jewish girl in Elizabeth, N.J., whose life - and community - are derailed by the crashes. She lives with Rusty, her 33-year-old single mother, who refuses to tell Miri the truth about the father who abandoned her. Irene, her Volupté-compact-selling grandmother, is another force in Miri's life, as is Miri's best friend, Natalie Osner, the dentist's well-off daughter with a serious cashmere sweater habit and a yearning for fame. Miri is also busy discovering first love with Mason, an orphan with secrets of his own. Then the planes zoom to earth, and everything changes. Panicked, the community draws together, struggling to find a reason for the disasters. Could it mean something that all three crashes narrowly missed schools? Was this the work of Communists, an A-bomb, or even aliens or sabotage? Was it the fault of Newark Airport, which many push to shut down? No one knows, and no one has seen anything like this before. The dead present themselves as "bodies, still strapped into their seats, hanging from trees like puppets in some kind of sick show." The site of the third crash has an almost "carnival air, with a hawker selling bags of popcorn and families taking their children to see the remains of the devastation." And though the plummeting planes are indeed horrific, Blume is much more interested in the way people themselves crash and burn, or sometimes manage to fly higher than they expected. "Where were you when you heard the news? What were you doing?" people ask, but a more important question might be, What has happened to you since? Natalie transforms, suddenly believing that one of the casualties, a dancer named Ruby, is living through her. Natalie's brother loses the girl he was falling in love with and, with her, his compass in life. A man made a widower by the first crash desperately looks for comfort with Irene. Making sense of the crashes isn't easy, but Miri's beloved uncle Henry does his best to cover it in the local paper, occasionally writing prose so purple - "the plane had broken apart like a swollen cream puff" - that Miri wonders if he did it on purpose: "When something so unimaginable happens you need to find a new way to help people see it." But life goes on. New bonds build, even as old prejudices threaten to rip relationships apart. A woman who works for Dr. Osner must keep her love for her boyfriend secret, because he isn't Greek as she is; Miri worries that Rusty will disapprove of Mason, who isn't Jewish. Still, despite these differences, how could this group not band together after what they all experienced? They know, as Miri later says, in a poem that she writes, "We're still part of a secret club,/One we'd never willingly join. /... We'll always be connected by that winter./Anyone who tells you different is lying." The novel moves with momentum, told in short chapter bursts, newspaper reports and even scripted dialogue. Blume plays with time, fast-forwarding 35 years at both beginning and end to show how these people eventually managed to make sense of what they could. Admittedly, the vast array of characters, who are quickly introduced, can be a little disorienting, and occasionally you might need to flip back pages to remember just who is who. It takes a while before you realize that Blume has threaded these lives together in an essential way and given every one of them importance, even a walk-on character like Longy Zwillman, the local gangster who promotes Las Vegas as the promised land they all need. Blume nails every 1950s detail, from the refinished basements with wet bars and knotty-pine walls to Elizabeth Taylor haircuts and mentions of Bogart and Bacall. The Korean War rages as busy mothers insist that those "Bird's Eye vegetables were a godsend." For Blume's cast, the suburbs begin to lose their shine, but what is there to replace them? Devastating secrets are uncovered, moving love stories play out or fade to black. Blume, whose fiction for adults has the same emotional immediacy as her books for children, makes us feel the pure shock and wonder of living, the ways we get through catastrophe - and the ways we fail. But our connections might save us. "Terrible things can happen in this life but being in love changes everything," one character says. We are all passengers in this world, Blume suggests, fastening our seatbelts, hoping we reach our desired destinations and bracing for what comes next. CAROLINE LEAVITT'S latest novel is "Is This Tomorrow." Was this the work of Communists, an A-bomb, or even aliens or sabotage? Or the fault of Newark Airport?
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [May 31, 2015]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* In her first adult novel since Summer Sisters (1998), celebrated children's and young adult author Blume tells the story of three generations of an Elizabeth, New Jersey, family: her protagonist, 15-year-old Miri; Miri's mother, Rusty; and Miri's grandmother, Irene. Their lives and those of their friends are impacted when a plane falls out of the sky over Elizabeth, and, in the course of the next 58 days, two others follow. Miri's friends are sure it's the work of aliens or zombies or, more simply, sabotage. Miri's reporter uncle, Henry, who will make his reputation covering the crashes for the local newspaper, says they're coincidences. But who is to say? In the meantime, Miri's boyfriend, Mason, becomes a hero in the wake of the third crash, but will their relationship survive? Like many family stories, this one is not without its life-changing secrets and surprises. There is no surprise that the book is smoothly written, and its story compelling. The setting the early 1950s is especially well realized through period references and incidents: God Bless America sung by Kate Smith, praying in public schools, reading the new novel Catcher in the Rye, watching Your Hit Parade on TV, and more. With its focus on Miri's coming-of-age, this could have been published as a YA novel, and it will doubtless reach a wide crossover readership. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: A new Blume novel will always be big news, and this one will be promoted on a wide scale to all ages.--Cart, Michael Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In 1952, the New Jersey town of Elizabeth is traumatized by three separate plane crashes in the span of one year. Blume's novel explores the events of that tumultuous period through the eyes of 15-year-old Miri, her family, other residents of the town, and relatives of the victims. Narrator McInerney expertly voices the myriad of characters, ranging from small children to teenagers to the elderly, giving each a distinct voice and portraying the conflicting emotions and events, both large and small. In addition to the trauma of the plane crashes, Miri and her friends are going through adolescence, high school, first loves, and plans for college or jobs. Through her narration, McInerney is able to convey all the characters' horror and reaction to the tragedies. She also captures their coming-of-age story, the little joys and sorrows and insecurities of growing up, the sense of small-town life in the 1950s-and the mature perspective of Miri as she returns to her hometown 35 years later for a memorial. This is a thoughtful, insightful tale, well told and well narrated. A Knopf hardcover. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Blume's latest is based on events from her own life and will hold appeal for both young adult and adult readers. It is December 1951 in Elizabeth, NJ, and ninth grader Miri Ammerman lives with her unwed mother, Rusty, and her grandmother Irene. During the winter, three planes crash in Elizabeth, affecting the community in multiple ways. The junior high students speculate about the reasons for the crashes; UFOs and communist sabotage are the most popular. Miri falls in love with an older boy, learns secrets about her parentage, and must deal with her friend Natalie's strange behavior and eating disorder. Newspaper reports and bits of 1950s popular culture such as Elizabeth Taylor haircuts, a 17" Zenith TV, and Nat King Cole lyrics are referenced in this blend of fact and fiction. Kathleen -McInerney brings a young, enthusiastic tone to her narration. VERDICT Recommended for libraries with historic fiction collections and Blume lovers of all ages everywhere.-David Faucheux, Lafayette, LA © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by School Library Journal Review
In the winter of 1951-52, three separate airplanes crashed into Elizabeth, NJ, near Newark Airport. Blume was a young teen at the time, and she revisits the events of those months in her latest novel told in the third person from multiple points of view. The main character, 15-year-old Miri Ammerman, lives in Elizabeth with her single mother, Rusty. Miri's Uncle Henry is a small-town journalist who makes a name for himself writing about the crashes for the local paper. Miri's grandmother Irene keeps the family fed and befriends a man who was widowed in the first crash. These and other protagonists' viewpoints help to build a picture of life in New Jersey in the early 1950s. Although there are many voices, Blume skillfully weaves their stories together so that it is always clear who each character is and what their connections are to one another. Miri experiences first love (with a non-Jewish boy) and begins to learn the truth about her father and his family. Her best friend Natalie, whose family and life Miri has always envied, begins a downward spiral into anorexia and believes that she is hearing messages from a dancer named Ruby who died on the first plane. This is a wonderful picture of a community living their lives while responding to not just one catastrophe but three. VERDICT Fans of Blume will clamor for this, but so, too, will any teen who enjoys a well-written coming-of-age novel that strongly evokes a specific time and place.-Sarah Flowers, formerly of Santa Clara County (CA) Library © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A beloved author returns with a novel built around a series of real-life plane crashes in her youth. Within 58 days in the winter of 1951-'52, three aircraft heading into or outbound from Newark Airport crashed in the neighboring town of Elizabeth, New Jersey, taking 116 lives. Blume (Summer Sisters, 1998, etc.), who was a teenager there at the time, has woven a story that mingles facts about the incidents and the victimsamong them, Robert Patterson, secretary of war under Trumanwith the imagined lives of several families of fictional characters. Though it's not always clear where truth ends and imagination begins, the 15-year-old protagonist, Miri Ammerman, is a classic Blume invention. Miri lives with her single mother, Rusty, her grandmother Irene, and her uncle Henry, a young journalist who makes his reputation reporting on the tragedies for the Elizabeth Daily Post. In addition to the crashes, one of which she witnesses firsthand, Miri faces drama with her mom, her best friend, the adviser of her school newspaper, and her first real boyfriend, an Irish kid who lives in an orphanage. Nostalgic details of life in the early '50s abound: from 17-inch Zeniths ("the biggest television Miri had ever seen") to movie-star haircuts ("She looked older, but nothing like Elizabeth Taylor") to popular literature"Steve was reading that new book The Catcher in the Rye. Christina had no idea what the title meant. Some of the girls went on dates to Staten Island, where you could be legally served at 18....The Catcher in the Rye and Ginger Ale." The book begins and ends with a commemorative gathering in 1987, giving us a peek at the characters' lives 35 year later, complete with shoulder pads and The Prince of Tides. Though it doesn't feel much like an adult novel, this book will be welcomed by any Blume fan who can handle three real tragedies and a few four-letter words. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
