Welcome to my weekly post where I look back at some of my four and five star reads before I started Nicole’s Nook.
Today’s book: In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume
Publisher: Knopf
Publication Date: June 2, 2015
Date Read: August 21, 2015
Favorite Quote: “Anything could go wrong any day of the week. What’s the point of worrying in advance?”
― Judy Blume, In the Unlikely Event
Goodreads Synopsis
In 1987, Miri Ammerman returns to her hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey, to attend a commemoration of the worst year of her life.
Thirty-five years earlier, when Miri was fifteen, and in love for the first time, a succession of airplanes fell from the sky, leaving a community reeling. Against this backdrop of actual events that Blume experienced in the early 1950s, when airline travel was new and exciting and everyone dreamed of going somewhere, Judy Blume imagines and weaves together a haunting story of three generations of families, friends, and strangers, whose lives are profoundly changed by these disasters. She paints a vivid portrait of a particular time and place — Nat King Cole singing “Unforgettable,” Elizabeth Taylor haircuts, young (and not-so-young) love, explosive friendships, A-bomb hysteria, rumors of Communist threat. And a young journalist who makes his name reporting tragedy. Through it all, one generation reminds another that life goes on.
My Thoughts
Since it’s been almost eight years since I read this, I went back and looked at the review I’d posted on Goodreads. I will copy that below. But, wanted to add a couple of points. First, I love when an author writes about a historical event that has a big impact on individuals, but is not commonly remembered by the public. I had never heard of these plane crash incidents, and learned a lot. Second, Judy Blume was one of the first authors I fell in love with as a child. This is a another planet from the Fudge books that had me giggling as a young reader. I have such admiration for authors that can write with such a range.
My Goodreads Review:
In the early 1950’s the residents of Elizabeth were terrorized when not one, not two, but three planes crashed in their community. The legendary author, Judy Blume,used these events to inspire her story of multiple generations trying to come to terms with these events, while still going on with the struggles of their everyday lives.
The lives of these characters would be a good story on their own. Miri is a fifteen year old daughter of a single mother experiencing her first love and finally learning the mystery of her father. Meanwhile the people around her have secrets of their own from unhappy marriages to secret loves. When these events are added to the dramatic world events of the plane crashes, the Korean Conflict and McCarthyism, the story becomes great. Blume really shows how a community would be affected when the world thinks of them as “Plane Crash City”. The adults try to protect the youth, but it’s all they can think/talk about; speculating conspiracies ranging from aliens to communists. I highly recommend this book, just don’t read it right before a plane trip.