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Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Release Date: August 22, 2017
Length: 320 pages
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Sometimes a book just screams to be discussed and Gabrielle Zevin’s new novel, Young Jane Young, is one such book. The much loved author of The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry has people buzzing about some of the very different turns used in her latest book. Readers who had looked at the book’s description on Goodreads might have been better prepared for the oddities of this book, but those of us who perused Amazon or Algonquin Books got a close, but slightly less forthcoming description.
From Algonquin Books
Aviva Grossman, an ambitious congressional intern in Florida, makes the mistake of having an affair with her boss —and blogging about it. When the affair comes to light, the beloved congressman doesn’t take the fall. But Aviva does, and her life is over before it hardly begins: slut-shamed, she becomes a late-night talk show punch line, anathema to politics.
She sees no way out but to change her name and move to a remote town in Maine. This time, she tries to be smarter about her life and strives to raise her daughter, Ruby, to be strong and confident. But when, at the urging of others, Aviva decides to run for public office herself, that long-ago mistake trails her via the Internet and catches up—an inescapable scarlet A. In the digital age, the past is never, ever, truly past. And it’s only a matter of time until Ruby finds out who her mother was and is forced to reconcile that person with the one she knows.
Young Jane Young is a smart, funny, and moving novel about what it means to be a woman of any age, and captures not just the mood of our recent highly charged political season, but also the double standards alive and well in every aspect of life for women.
Young Jane Young was told from the perspective of five different women, each adding to the story of Jane and the choices she made. For our purposes today, let’s talk about what worked, what didn’t, and what other questions arose in this book. I’ll briefly include my thoughts, but please jump in with yours and add questions that I’ve missed. For those of you who haven’t yet read Young Jane Young, I’m sorry, but THERE WILL BE SPOILERS from here on out!
Best Parts of Young Jane Young
- I like stories told from multiple perspectives and Young Jane Young used five: her mother, Jane herself, her daughter (Ruby), Embeth, the Congressman’s wife, and Aviva, Jane’s former self.
- Rachel’s opening narration was fantastic. I loved her realistic, matter-of-fact voice and would have been happy had she told the whole story.
- I liked that Zevin built a story around an all too common scenario: a couple has an affair. The powerful man goes on with little impact to his life, while the woman is slut-shamed and blamed for choices they both made. This is an excellent premise and I was excited to see where the story went.
- Jane’s building of a new life for herself in order to protect her child. I appreciated that she’d put her daughter first.
- Embeth Levin was a very sympathetic character and not just because she had cancer. I sometimes found her choices questionable, but found her love for her husband, despite his many flaws, to be touching.
Parts That Didn’t Quite Work
- Ruby’s section of the book was where Young Jane Young began to unravel for me. I thought Ruby was an extremely naive 13-year old and her one-sided exchange with her Indonesian penpal got old fast. Ruby’s near obsessive, Fancy Nancy style of defining words didn’t work for me either.
- El Mete!!! What was with the imaginary parrot? Sure it added some humor to the story, but for me, El Mete made Embeth (a character I really liked) seem a little too unbalanced. It felt like fluff.
- “Choose Your Own Adventure” – why? In the final section of the book, Aviva emerges to tell what happened years before between her and the Congressman. She looks back on other choices she might have made and that takes on the “Choose Your Own Adventure” format, in which you never really get to choose.
- Aviva’s section was narrated to herself in a “you do” sort of way that quickly became annoying.
- Aviva’s section contained too much filler, including parts about gaydar, and the “girl on a mattress in a storm” analogy. Add to that, the fact that by the time Aviva was telling the story the reader already knew almost everything from the others. Is this why her section contained so many gimmicks?
- I didn’t understand Rachel and Aviva having so little contact over the years. Only a couple phone calls a year and no visits ever felt cruel on Aviva/Jane’s part and unrealistically accepting on Rachel’s.
Further Questions
- What did you think of the five women and their roles in Young Jane Young?
- Did the gimmicks go too far or did you enjoy them? Did they get in the way of the story?
- Was Jane hiding away to avoid more shame a choice that was at odds with running for office?
- Did you understand why Rachel would let her only child essentially cut her out of her life? Was she taking respect for her child’s wishes too far? Was Jane cruel in not letting Rachel know her granddaughter all those years?
- Did it bother anyone else that Embeth wasn’t all that concerned when Ruby showed up? She just took her to lunch and a movie…no problem!
Please, join the discussion!
What did you think of Young Jane Young?
Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest thoughts.
Disclosure: There are Amazon Associate links included within this post.
What an awesome discussion post you’ve laid out Susie! I agree with every one of your ideas on parts that didn’t work. What was going through my mind about the Choose your Adventure chapter and Ruby’s letter writing was that it seemed to be total filler. I completely skimmed the letter writing and really what was the point since we didn’t get to hear from the other girl? Aviva’s chapter bothered me so much because as you said we already knew what choices she made so it was repetition, why not go with showing us what would’ve happened if she made the different choice? I went along with El Mete thinking we’d find out that it was a manifestation of the cancer spreading to her brain but no, we weren’t given a reason so it did just make her look crazy which was the opposite of how she was portrayed. That brings me to my biggest grip with this book…I felt that the author just ended it and left us with so many unanswered questions. A few would be fine, but I felt cheated that we didn’t get to hear from Rachel and Jane together after so many years apart, did she win mayor, what happened to Embeth? To me, this second half and that ending points to a deadline and the author just finishing because she had to…it felt unfair to readers
You are so right about all the unanswered questions. I’d have liked to know more, too. It seems like there were a lot of miss opportunities, especially in the second half of the book.
I skipped because of potential spoilers, but I am excited to try this one. I’ve been a big Zevin fan since her YA-only days and long before AJ Fikry. In general, her storytelling really pulls me in, so I’m excited to try this one!
I look forward to hearing what you think!
As you know, I HATED the Choose Your Own Adventure. Felt gimmicky and like a kids comic book. Maybe I felt this way b/c I never read those as a kid and don’t feel any nostalgia for them, but it felt really out of place.
I actually thought the parrot was kind of cool WHEN I THOUGHT SHE ACTUALLY HAD A PET PARROT. I was so annoyed when he turned out to be imaginary.
And – I thought Jane disappeared and changed her identity less out of shame and more b/c she kept getting the door slammed in her face when she tried to get her life back on track following the affair. Couldn’t find a job, etc. I thought Zevin was making a point about the fact that the married and more powerful man just gets to continue on in his life (not even losing his job), while the powerless female party’s life gets destroyed.
This book just irritated me b/c it had so much potential and I loved the first half so much! Then it cratered.
Oh – and one more thing – this whole thing reminds me of the title of Alyssa Mastromonaco’s memoir Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?
I agree that Zevin was making the point of the greater consequence being for the woman, but I’d have liked to see Aviva/Jane succeed without completely hiding. It really bothered me that she cut her parents out of her life (and Ruby’s).
I didn’t read the spoilers portion, but I’m kind of bummed about this one after your and Sarah’s reactions to it; should I even take the time to read it?!
It’s a really fast, easy read, so if your curious I think you should give it a try. We both liked the first half and you may like the second half now that you’re better prepared.
This is a very quick read.
The “Choose Your Own Adventure” section didn’t annoy me as much as it did some. In some ways, it made clear Aviva’s other (better) choices along the way.
The parrot thing was weird and unnecessary but I chalked it up to trying to illustrate Embeth’s weakness after a battle with cancer (and apparently facing another). I think I felt most sorry for her.
Something that kept niggling in my mind: neither Aviva nor Ruby have any friends. Ruby is portrayed as a nerdy kid who’s being bullied. But one would think there would be another nerdy kid in town. The pen pal thing was annoying. Further, Aviva’s lack of relationships with her college peers didn’t ring true.
Given how close Aviva and Rachel were, I have difficulty believing that Aviva/Jane would have kept the existence of Ruby from her mother.
I was disappointed that the book let the Congressman get off so easily. I don’t think that’s always the case (Clinton was impeached, Condit lost his office and is off the grid). It made the book a bit too cliche.
One of my biggest problems with this book is that the author gave us no indication of what time frame much of the story was taking place. It seemed like Ruby went from being 8 to being 13 in a matter of paragraphs and we were never given any warning that time had passed. I was also left with many unanswered questions, such as, how did Roz and Rachel become friends again and does Jane/Aviva ever tell Ruby who her real father is? This may sound harsh, but I felt that this book was a first draft and needed some more work before hitting the shelves.