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Mary Jane

A Novel

by Jessica Anya Blau

Narrator Caitlin Kinnunen

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Length 9 hours 44 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“Mary Jane is 14 in 1975 and her summer nannying job is filled with surprises, spontaneity, and love as she is pulled into the family of the little girl she watches. A sweet and funny story of discovering yourself, your loved ones, and where you fit in. It really hit home for me.”
— Courtney Boches • Reads & Company

Bookseller recommendation

“This is one of my favorite audiobooks EVER! The brilliant narrating brings the reader right into this 1970s coming-of-age, rock star story of a young woman who has lived a sheltered, Leave-It-To-Beaver life. One summer, she is asked to be the nanny for a neighborhood doctor and his wife. What transpires will change everything for Mary Jane.”
— Mary • Skylark Bookshop

Bookseller recommendation

“Mary Jane, oh, Mary Jane... You'll be singing along too, I promise you, to the expert and pitch-perfect audio performed by Caitlin Kinnunen, best known for playing Emma Nolan in the musical The Prom, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. This tragicomic novel by Jessica Anya Blau was so fabulous, so fresh yet so nostalgic, it's absolutely the book I will be recommending for anyone's beach read. The dialogue was superb, the characters were loveable, the time period—1970s!!—was the best I loved it!”
— Jenny • The Vermont Book Shop

Bookseller recommendation

“This book was so stinking cute and was even better in audiobook format (Caitlin Kinnunen for the win!). I think the story was completely elevated by Broadway's Caitlin Kinnunen who's young but silky voice was perfectly able to capture the naiveté of Mary Jane and the roughness of Jimmy's singing voice. In general, the singing interludes of the audiobook are well worth the listen as they truly enliven the whole story. Mary Jane's aloofness as she enters this household that would be scoffed at by her straight-laced mother is very funny. The Cones live of cereal and takeout, with a fridge full of rotten and expired groceries. They also live freely with clothing, often stripping in front of each other and wearing clothing that Mary Jane's mother would consider risque. It's a coming of age story that spans only a single summer, where Mary Jane realizes how different life can be lived outside of her conservative household. Overall, a truly cute and light read that would be great for fans of coming of age stories and learning to push the boundaries on familial beliefs.”
— Kimi • Buttonwood Books and Toys

Summary
About the author

""The best book of the summer."" -- InStyle

""I LOVED this novel....If you have ever sung along to a hit on the radio, in any decade, then you will devour Mary Jane at 45 rpm."" —Nick Hornby

Almost Famous meets Daisy Jones & The Six in this ""delightful"" (New York Times Book Review) novel about a fourteen-year-old girl’s coming of age in 1970s Baltimore, caught between her straight-laced family and the progressive family she nannies for—who happen to be secretly hiding a famous rock star and his movie star wife for the summer.

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.

Fiction Humor Fiction - Literary

Jessica Anya Blau was born in Boston and raised in Southern California. Her novels have been featured on The TODAY Show, Good Morning America, CNN, and NPR, and in Cosmo, Vanity Fair, Bust, Time Out, Oprah Summer Reads and other national publications. Jessica’s short stories and essays have been published in numerous magazines, journals, and anthologies. Jessica co-wrote the script for Love on the Run starring Frances Fisher and Steve Howey. She sometimes works as a ghost writer and has taught writing at Johns Hopkins University, Goucher College, and The Fashion Institute of Technology. Jessica lives in New York.