Young Jane Young

June 26, 2017
Zevin (The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry) offers a satisfying and entertaining story of reinvention and second chances in the wake of a political sex scandal. Aviva Grossman was far and away the most capable intern working in the Florida district office of her local congressman—until their affair was exposed and the subsequent national scandal destroyed her reputation (though, tellingly, not the congressman’s) and doused her political aspirations. Fast-forward more than a decade: Aviva, a single mom, has legally changed her name to Jane Young, moved to small-town Maine, and applied her logistical competence to running her own event planning business. When the town matriarch encourages Jane to run for mayor, her youthful indiscretions threaten to derail her tentative foray back into the political arena. Divided into sections, each focusing on a different woman—Aviva’s mother, Jane; her 13-year-old daughter, Ruby; the congressman’s wife; and Aviva—the novel’s structure means that plot points are occasionally re-trod, though sometimes with surprising new insights. Zevin also plays with form, crafting Ruby’s section as a series of frequently hilarious emails to her Indonesian pen pal and the final section like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” novel. Real-world parallels aside, Jane’s story is in the end less about political scandal and more about gaining strength and moving on from youthful missteps.

Starred review from June 1, 2017
When a young political intern in South Florida has an affair with her boss, it leads to disaster--at least at first.The best thing to come out of the Monica Lewinsky scandal since Lewinsky's own magnificent TED talk, Zevin's (The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, 2014, etc.) fourth adult novel reinvents the familiar story more cleverly and warmly than one would have thought possible. Five sections come at the situation from different angles. The first is called "Bubbe Meise" ("Old Wives' Tale" in Yiddish), and in it we hear the delightful old-Jewish-lady voice of Rachel Shapiro, a South Floridian who's dipping her toe into online dating. She's on a date that's going quite well until the fellow asks her daughter's name, and she tells him it's Aviva, and he remarks that that was the name of that awful girl who got in trouble with Congressman Levin back in 2001. "You really don't remember her? Well, Rach, she was like Monica Lewinsky....It was a blight on South Florida, a blight on Jews, a blight on politicians if that's even possible, a blight on civilization in general." That's the end of that beautiful relationship. Rachel gives us the outlines on the debacle, after which her daughter disappeared, 13 years ago now. "I have a cell phone number. She calls me once or twice a year. I believe I have a grandchild. Yes, I would call this a sadness in my life." To reveal more would be to give away too much, since part of the joy here is the unexpected way the story unfolds. I can tell you, as Rachel Shapiro might say, that you will hear from the eponymous Jane Young, who's a wedding planner in a small town in Maine, and that one of the sections is an adroit takeoff on the structure of the Choose Your Own Adventure books, also seen recently in Nathan Hill's The Nix. Must be generational. References to Monica Lewinsky herself are a running theme, recalling the brutal true story underlying this delicious fictional one. This book will not only thoroughly entertain everyone who reads it; it is the most immaculate takedown of slut-shaming in literature or anywhere else. Cheers, and gratitude, to the author.

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April 15, 2017

Having charmed us with The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, an LJ Best Book that lingered four months on the New York Times best sellers list, Zevin returns with Aviva Grossman, a hopeful congressional intern in Florida. An affair with her much-admired and much-married boss makes her toxic, and she escapes the media glare by changing her name and trying to start over in faraway Maine. But the past won't stay past.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2017
If you're going to have an affair with a married congressman, don't blog about it. That's one of the tough lessons young Aviva Grossman learns in this splendid novel. As a 20-year-old intern for an up-and-coming politician in South Florida, Aviva makes a series of poor choices that lead to a scandal, destroying her career before it has even begun. Years later, an event planner named Jane Young is running for mayor in her Maine town when the specter of the Grossman affair threatens to derail her candidacy. A witty, strongly drawn group of female voices tells Aviva's story, three generations exploring the ripple effect her actions created. Zevin, whose works include several YA and adult novels, including The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry (2014), has created a fun and frank tale. Her vibrant and playful writing, and the fully realized characters taking turns as narrator, bring the story a zestful energy, even while exploring dark themes of secrecy and betrayal. Zevin perfectly captures the realities of the current political climate and the consequences of youthful indiscretions in an era when the Internet never forgets.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)