252. Young Jane Young

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Gabrielle Zevin

Genre:  Fiction

294 pages, published August 22, 2017

Reading Format:  e-Book

Summary

Young Jane Young is the fictional story of Aviva Grossman, a young Congressional intern in Florida whose life is ruined after she has an affair with her married boss, a beloved Congressman and blogs about it. When the affair becomes front page news, Aviva is the recipient of public scorn and ridicule.  After a period of depression, she leaves Florida and reinvents herself in Maine as a wedding planner and raises a daughter on her own.  When she decides to run for public office herself, her long past mistake comes back to haunt her again.

 

Quotes 

“Maybe you survive cancer, maybe you survive the Holocaust, but life’ll get you every time.”

 

“It’s the special privilege of youth to make mistakes.”

 

“When someone tells you, ‘it’s not what it looks like,’ it’s almost always exactly what it looks like.”

 

“The key to happiness in life is knowing when to keep your mouth shut.”

 

“Anticipating the worst doesn’t provide insurance from the worst happening.”

 

“The only past you have a right to know about is your own.”

 

“Later, you yell at your mother, but you know it isn’t her fault. You yell at her because she’s there and because she’s your mother and she’ll take it.”

 

“When you have much, you must accept that you could someday have little.”

 

“Because 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.”

 

“I am ‘neurotic.’ ‘Neurotic’ means ‘I think about things until I am sick.’“

 

My Take

Young Jane Young was a quick and fun read.  I was drawn in by Zevin’s wry and humorous writing style as well as her keen insights on the human condition.  I would definitely be interested in other books by this writer. If you are looking for a good beach or vacation read, this is it.