Young Jane Young

I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.

Actual rating: 4.5/5

Young Jane Young takes on a very hard task indeed: attempting to shine a light on the reality of the modern scarlet letters. Being alive in the Internet era ensures that complete privacy is definitely a dream, and anything happened in the past is destined to be eternally present. Aviva, a young, ambitious yet naive Congressional intern, has her life figured out: she'll study subjects that give her an edge on the competition, undertake a serious, high-profile internship to get all the experience she needs to become a successful politician herself. What she didn't show more count on was making a mistake. A stupid, life-changing mistake that tarnishes her name and quickly changes her from promise to punchline. Dubbed the "Monica Lewinsky of Florida", Aviva quickly becomes job-less, friend-less and hope-less. Everyone has heard of her, and even those who haven't will Google her and find out all there is to know about her: she had an affair with her boss.

"I'm not a murderer", she says. "I'm a slut, and you can't be acquitted of that."

Told in alternating points view, Young Jane Young tells Aviva's story through the eyes of all the women actors. Thoughtful and funny, sad and hopeful, these wonderful characters shows us the complexities of being a modern woman, in a society where our freedoms are many and apparent, but our chains just as many and hidden away. While none of their lives turn out quite like they expected, all these wonderful, complicated, resilient women manage to take what they have and turn in into something great.

Bittersweet and masterfully narrated, this book is not to be missed. A must-read in today's ever connected, fast moving world, where women's place in society has never been more safe and yet so precarious. show less

Thoroughly engaging and enjoyable read built around the premise of a young intern who has scandalous sex with a married congressman. No innovation there, but what is fresh is the perspectives involved: first we hear about it from the intern Aviva Grossman's mother, Rachel Shapiro. She confronts it face-first as she sets out to try internet dating and the first man she likes brings up the scandal, not knowing her proximity to it. The next point of view is Aviva herself who has re-invented her life as Jane Young, moving from FL, the scene of the "crime" to ME where she now owns/runs an event planning business and raises her 13-yr. old daughter Ruby as a single mom. When takes on wedding planning for an aspiring politician (Wes West, and show more his fragile wife Franny) and she then decides to run for mayor of the small town they live in , the past comes crashing in and threatens to destroy her relationship with Ruby who has no idea of her mom's former identity or her own parentage. Ruby is a favorite character with lots of intelligence, chutzpah, and maturity for her age. The final section is written like a choose-your-own adventure book and fills in the past for Aviva, her family and the affair. Great issues of womanhood/feminism abound and the book is full of strong females, but the humor and absurdity of some of the situations keep it from being heavy-handed or didactic. Light enough to be entertaining, but has some teeth to it. Reminded me a bit of Where'd You Go Bernadette? with the scrappy girl, wounded mother, humor and blended genres. Perfect plane read as you could finish it in the airport/air time. show less

In college, Aviva Grossman works as an intern for handsome congressman Aaron Levin, and they start a secret affair that is exposed when they are in a car crash together (though neither of them is at fault. For the crash). As in the Monica Lewinsky case, the scandal ruins Aviva but only briefly affects the congressman.

Pregnant (not by the congressman), Aviva changes her name and asks her grandmother for help to set up a new life: she goes to a small town in Maine and becomes an event planner. As soon as she's old enough, her daughter Ruby begins to help her as her assistant. But when Jane decides to run for mayor, her opponent's underhanded tactics send Ruby searching - and she finds out about Jane's past as Aviva. Furious at being lied show more to her whole life, Ruby takes off for Florida to confront the congressman she thinks is her father.

Young Jane Young is told in five parts, by five (or four, depending how you count) different people: Rachel Shapiro, Aviva's mother; Jane, grown-up Aviva; Ruby, Jane's 13-year-old daughter, in e-mails to an international pen pal; Embeth, the congressman's wife; and Aviva herself, in second-person, Choose Your Own Adventure format. This is brilliantly fun and effective.

See also: Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple; Monica Lewinsky's TED Talk

Quotes

"Anticipating the worst doesn't provide insurance from the worst happening," Mimmy says. (Rachel, 65)

People were often the worst versions of themselves in the months leading up to a wedding. Occasionally, though, the worst version of someone was the actual version of someone, but it was difficult to know if one was in that situation until after the fact. (Jane, 103)

"The only past you have a right to know about is your own." (Jane to Ruby, 103)

It is foolish to speculate what is happening inside another human's shell. (104)

I believed a mother must act like the woman she wanted her daughter to become. (104)

"The things we don't have are sadder than the things we have. Because the things we don't have exist in our imaginations, where they are perfect." (Ruby to Franny, 139)

Embeth's special power was what Jorge referred to as "negative empathy" - she could always imagine the worst thing a person might be thinking. (179-180)

You have no power, and he has all the power. And this sometimes frustrates you. (Aviva, 239)

..you are thinking how having an affair with your boss is kind of like being in a straitjacket and in chains and submerged in water. You feel like you will need to be an emotional Houdini if you are ever going to extricate yourself. (254)

"Why are you so quiet?" he asks.
Because, you want to say, I am a person with an interior world that you know nothing about. But to say such a thing would violate the terms of your relationship. (255)

The discovery of your shame is one click away...[the Internet is like The Scarlet Letter]. There's that scene at the beginning where Hester Prynne is forced to stand in the town square for the afternoon. Maybe three or four hours. Whatever the time, it's unbearable to her.
You will be standing in that square forever.
You will wear that "A" until you're dead.
You consider your options.
You have no options. (267)

You don't always feel like you love Ruby as much as you should. Where is room for love? All you have is fear and a to-do list. But you take care of her as best you can, and you think of what your grandmother said: "To take care of something is to love it." (284) show less

By the way, I never mention her weight because I don't want her to end up with a complex. I was overweight when I was her age, and my mother discussed it exhaustively. And yes, as a result, I would say I am the proud owner of several complexes. But who isn't? When you think about it, isn't a person just a structure built in reaction to the landscape and the weather?

Young Jane Young tells the story of Aviva, a young woman interested in a career in politics who interns for the re-election campaign of a congressman. The congressman is charismatic and friendly, Aviva is insecure and determined to change her life. When their relationship is discovered, Aviva is the one to take the fall, while the congressman is able to continue his life as show more usual.

This book reminded me of Where'd You Go, Bernadette? in its tone and structure, but with less obvious humor and a warmer heart. The narrator shifts between Aviva, her mother, her daughter and the congressman's wife, and the changes in perspective give the book a wider view of what happened and how Aviva managed to rebuild her life. Despite the extreme relevance of the novel's subject matter, Gabrielle Zevin manages to both build nuance and to keep the tone from becoming too somber or angry. show less

Aviva Grossman interns for her local and very married congressman in Florida; that is, until their affair is uncovered. The congressman’s career continues almost unscathed, his wife standing by his side, but Aviva’s political aspirations are completely crushed by the scandal. The story then fast-forwards a decade – Aviva has moved to Maine, legally changed her name to Jane Young, and is now a single mother of a ten-year-old daughter and with a successful business as an event planner. A couple of years later she is convinced to run for mayor against a man whose wedding she had planned. They are locked in a kind of political battle of mutually assured destruction - he knows her secret but she also knows one about his wife. But he show more isn’t the only one who discovers the truth about Jane’s past and her chance for the political career she has always wanted may be derailed by someone much closer to home.

Young Jane Young by author Gabrielle Zevin is a tale about double standards and second chances. Told with empathy and humour, the story switches between the perspectives of several women: Rachel Grossman, Aviva Grossman’s mother, Aviva/Jane, her daughter, Ruby, and Embeth, the congressman’s wife. The plot moves back and forth in perspective and time. There are, as well. some very interesting changes in style - in Ruby’s case, for example, we learn much of her story through emails to her Indonesian pen pal and, as the story heads toward its denouement, much of it is told as a ‘choose your own adventure’.

Most of the men in this story are scoundrels but they are, for the most part, likable scoundrels. But this book is not about men or even politics. It is for and about women providing an entertaining, rather humorous but gentle poke at the double standard that still exists between the genders from the perspective of several generations of strong women. Loved it!

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review show less

The initial part of this book is narrated by Rachel Shapiro, a 64-year-old divorced woman in Boca Raton, Florida, who is looking for a new relationship via internet matches. But the story turns out not really to be about Rachel at all, but about her daughter Aviva Grossman.

Aviva was 20 when she fell in love with Congressman Aaron Levin while working as an intern in his office in Miami. They had an affair which got exposed, becoming a news obsession in South Florida (“Avivagate”) until the catastrophe on September 11 finally took the affair off the front pages.

But nothing dies on the internet, and Aviva couldn’t escape her past; she couldn’t even get a job; all anyone had to do was google her name. Even worse:

“Because it was show more an election year, the congressman’s staff took great pains to distance itself from Aviva. They characterized her as the Lolita intern, a Lewinsky wannabe, and a variety of other synonyms for ‘slutty.’”

Unfortunately for Aviva, as one might expect, the Congressman came out of it unscathed, while Aviva might as well have had a scarlet letter on her chest.

She decided the only escape was to take a new name in a new state, and the story continues years later with narration by “Jane Young,” who is the former Aviva:

“My name is Jane Young. I am thirty-three years old, and I am an event planner, though my business mainly consists of weddings. I was raised in South Florida, but I now reside in Allison Springs, Maine, which is about twenty-five minutes from Portland and which is a popular summer spot for destination weddings.”

Because Allison Springs is a relatively small town, Jane finds out everyone’s secrets:

“People were often the worst versions of themselves in the months leading up to a wedding. Occasionally, though, the worst version of someone was the actual version of someone, but it was difficult to know if one was in that situation until after the fact.”

Jane is also the single mom of a precocious daughter, Ruby. Ruby helps out her mom as an assistant (Jane reports Ruby’s first word was “canapé.”). Like Jane and Jane's mother Rachel, Ruby is perceptive, sarcastic, and has an excellent sense of humor.

When Ruby is 13, she becomes pen pals with an Indonesian girl, Fatima, and the narration frequently switches to Ruby, sometimes in the form of her very amusing letters to Fatima. She explains to Fatima that her mom, now 37, is running for mayor of Allison Springs.

Ruby also confesses to Fatima that she has started to think about her dad. She asks Jane for more information, and Jane tells her he was a one-night stand named Mariano Donatello who died in a car accident. But Ruby can’t find anything about that name on the internet (the web being a recurring character itself in this story). Then she figures out her mom is Aviva Grossman. She is appalled that her mom is “a BIG liar and a disgrace.” She is angry and hurt at being lied to her whole life.” She accuses her mother of “daughter fraud” - lying to her daughter, not to mention of “voter fraud” - lying to the voters. She decides Congressman Levin must be her real father, and chaos ensues.

Near the end of the book the narration switches to Embeth, the long-suffering wife of the congressman. Embeth is a surprisingly sympathetic character, and is also quite funny. She observes, “There had been times when Aaron had let her down as a husband, but she could honestly say he had never let her down as a congressman.” But in “the irony to end all ironies,” Embeth loved Aaron. She felt that it wasn’t being cheated on that was so bad, it was having it be public. “She still, fifteen years later, wondered if they judged her for staying with him after Avivagate.”

All of the characters come to a reckoning as the threads of their stories coalesce. It may sound as if it is a tragic story, and in terms of the disparate treatment of gender by society and double standards that still prevail, it certainly is. But the mood is so light and so full of wit, it is hard to feel anything but happy while reading this entertaining story. The ending is well done, and quite satisfactory.

Discussion: I love some of the insights revealed by the characters. For example, Jane muses:

“I was overweight when I was her age, and my mother discussed it exhaustively. And yes, as a result, I would say I am the proud owner of several complexes. But who isn’t? When you think about it, isn’t a person just a structure built in reaction to the landscape and the weather?”

Jane also understood that, being older, her memories of what happened with the congressman were not as bad as they might have, or should have, been:

“Maybe, despite everything, I think kindly of Levin because I knew him when I was easily impressed, because I knew him when I was young.”

Evaluation: I haven’t read all of the books by this author (I’m not sure why not), but I have loved every one I have read. They have all been heavily dosed with waggish humor both subtle and overt, with unexpected plot twists, and clever dialogue. In addition, they have been about the never-boring exploration of love in its different forms and permutations over the years. This book would also be an excellent choice for book clubs. show less

In YOUNG JANE YOUNG, Gabrielle Zevin gives us a largely humorous, but ultimately quite serious, exploration of the role of women in America. Her focus is on the relative power differential between the genders and the role that shaming women plays in that dynamic. It is impossible not to think of Monica Lewinsky when reading this novel, but Zevin’s story is less about political scandal and more about redemption. Slut-shaming clearly is one of our society’s guilty pleasures. It is one of the primary ways we disempower women. Yet Zevin gives us a strong protagonist who overcomes youthful mistakes by building a successful life. This is jeopardized primarily by the technological guarantee that everything you have ever done lives forever show more on the Internet. Notwithstanding this sad fact, Zevin’s message is uplifting (i.e., we do not have to accept cultural norms aimed at shaming women).

Variations of this mundane plot seem endemic in America. Aviva Grossman is a successful young congressional intern in Miami who has an affair with her boss. She blogs about it anonymously (she thinks). Following a stupid automobile accident (think Chappaquiddick), the affair and blog are revealed. The congressman walks away pretty much unscathed but Avivagate becomes a national scandal. To escape the shame, Aviva changes her name to Jane Young and moves to a small town in Maine. There she lives quietly for 13 years as a successful event planner and the single mother of the precocious Ruby. As a consequence of her decision to run for Mayor, her past is revealed. Ruby finds this unsettling and brings things to a head by running off to Florida in search of the Congressman, whom she believes to be her father.

This novel derives much of its power from the adoption of five distinct perspectives. Rachel Shapiro is Aviva’s mother. She dishes all of the background in the voice of an elderly Jewish matron while telling her own experiences with online dating. She clearly loves her daughter. As the successful wedding planner, Jane fills us in on what has happened since Avivagate. Ruby’s section, replete with emails to her Indonesian pen pal, elucidates her discovery of Jane’s past. Embeth is the faithful wife of the congressman. She is a strong woman who is definitely loyal to her spouse but demonstrates considerable nuance, primarily via her communication with an imagined parrot. The final section, told in Aviva’s voice, is entitled “Choose Your Own Adventure.” This section derives its power from the second person voice where we cease shaming her and begin to imagine ourselves in her place. This narrative voice strongly suggests that empathy is often what is lacking in our assessment of these scandals. show less