I cannot say enough good things about Mary Jane, I was mesmerized by this story, the characters all grabbed my heart, and the lessons learned by all while sometimes difficult were ones that eventually led them to finding their own happiness. An unconventional coming of age story that was perfectly crafted, Mary Jane is one of my favorite books of 2021. ~ Slick – Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews
Synopsis:
In 1970s Baltimore, fourteen-year-old Mary Jane loves cooking with her mother, singing in her church choir, and enjoying her family’s subscription to the Broadway Showtunes of the Month record club. Shy, quiet, and bookish, she’s glad when she lands a summer job as a nanny for the daughter of a local doctor. A respectable job, Mary Jane’s mother says. In a respectable house.
The house may look respectable on the outside, but inside it’s a literal and figurative mess: clutter on every surface, Impeachment: Now More Than Ever bumper stickers on the doors, cereal and takeout for dinner. And even more troublesome (were Mary Jane’s mother to know, which she does not): the doctor is a psychiatrist who has cleared his summer for one important job—helping a famous rock star dry out. A week after Mary Jane starts, the rock star and his movie star wife move in.
Over the course of the summer, Mary Jane introduces her new household to crisply ironed clothes and a family dinner schedule, and has a front-row seat to a liberal world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll (not to mention group therapy). Caught between the lifestyle she’s always known and the future she’s only just realized is possible, Mary Jane will arrive at September with a new idea about what she wants out of life, and what kind of person she’s going to be.
Holy cow, I have to wonder if Jessica Anya Blau was a fly on my wall in 1975 because the parallels of Mary Jane’s life 
and mine at age 14 were so very similar it was eerie. Yes there were differences, my parents were not like Mary Jane’s parents in that they were loving and my Mom worked out of the home, but I too was a nanny for a family down the street for several years and their lifestyle was quite different from my own home and while I never lied to my parents I didn’t share things that happened in the home in which I worked. I felt so connected with Mary Jane and her situation, how her eyes were opened to a world she didn’t know existed, and how she learned she was more than the small circle in which she had always lived and while she appreciated what she learned in her own home, she wanted more in her life.
A coming of age story in a time where the world was changing rapidly and prior to the age of the internet and the 24 hour news cycle, Mary Jane is exposed to a very different way of life, different morals, family closeness she craves, and freedom she’s never experienced before. Mary Jane’s home is orderly; her mother is the quintessential housewife who has dinner on the table when her husband comes home from a hard day at the office. Her father provides for the family, period. He isn’t a bad man he just isn’t interested. The moment Mary Jane walks into the Cone’s home for her first day as a nanny she realizes that life in this home is way different, but she likes it.
As Mr. Cone is a doctor, her parents feel she is working for a respectable family (despite them being Jewish), but they are a bit off kilter. They lack housekeeping and cooking skills, their 5 year old daughter Izzy runs around naked and pretty much fends for herself and Mary Jane knows that she needs to help organize the house as well as watch Izzy. Then they reveal the reason her help is needed, Mr. Cone will be treating Jimmy (a rock star) for the entire summer (turns out he’s a psychologist) and Mrs. Cone will be entertaining Sheba his wife (who is a well known actress and singer). Mary Jane is sworn to secrecy. Mary Jane knows her parents would never approve of the Cone’s home or the fact Mr. Cone will be treating a rock star with an addiction problem, but she feels so at home in their home, she loves Izzy, and she likes the way Mr. and Mrs. Cone see her. She feels wanted, she feels useful, and she feels alive.
Every day we see Mary Jane change from a girl to a young woman; she’s more confident, she questions things in the world that don’t seem right, and she feels a happiness she’s never known. She is finally liked for the person she is and she begins to love herself. I loved watching her blossom.
It was interesting watching the way the relationships between Mary Jane, the Cones, and Jimmy and Sheba form and build; there was a bond between them all forged by the secrecy and the emotional times they shared throughout the summer. Mary Jane got a swift education in the ways of the world, but also formed relationships where she felt safe and valued. Each experience propelled her journey forward and forced her to realize that there was more out in the world for her to see, enjoy, and experience.
I cannot say enough good things about Mary Jane, I was mesmerized by this story, the characters all grabbed my heart, and the lessons learned by all while sometimes difficult were ones that eventually led them to finding their own happiness. An unconventional coming of age story that was perfectly crafted, Mary Jane is one of my favorite books of 2021.
5 stars
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