Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin
“I wish I could remember her last name. You really don’t remember her? Well, Rach, she was like Monica Lewinsky. The girl knew he was married and she seduced him. I guess she was drawn to the limelight. Or maybe she was insecure. She was slutty and a bit zaftig—one of those such-a-pretty-face types—so it probably raised her self-esteem to attract a man like Levin. I can’t feel much sympathy for people like that. What the heck was her last name?”
Her name was Grossman, Aviva Grossman. Rach is Aviva’s mother, on a date with a man years after that scandal erupted at the turn of the twenty first century.
Aviva Grossman was a smart, ambitious young woman, the star intern in the office of her congressman. A political science and Spanish literature major she was looking at a bright future. But then she did something dumb. Not only did she have an affair with the congressman, she blogged about it (anonymously but, you know….). This was back in 2000, before anyone really knew what a weblog was. But once they were outed the scandal became known as “Avivagate” and her world came crashing down in the hothouse of the media glare.
In her very sharp new novel Gabrielle Zevin explores the aftermath of a horrible mistake made by a young woman. It’s an all too common story, an older, married man in a position of power, embroils himself in a dalliance. They get found out, he weathers the storm and maintains his position, she is pilloried, judged, shamed and condemned forever to purgatory.
The parallels to Monica Lewinsky (down to the cover art) are not accidental of course. Given the times we live in today it is hard to believe how extraordinarily consumed the country was with this story almost 20 years ago. But Zevin brings a fresh eye to examining this incident (retold in a fictional scenario) and it’s an eye those of us who lived through that time could probably use ourselves. She concerns herself with the question how do you come back from something like that? How do you build a life that is meaningful, that allows you to fulfill your ambitions, that reflects who you really are and what you have to offer? And how do you do that if you are a woman, no, the woman who is branded as the bad actor? The congressman’s presidential ambitions may have been thwarted by the affair, but he’s still a successful congressman years later, re-elected regularly and unscathed. It’s always different for the woman caught in the scandal.
What Aviva Grossman does is disappear. Literally disappear. She packs up, leaves Florida and starts a brand new life for herself with a new name and identity in the middle of nowhere. She’s a grown woman now, with a teenage daughter, Ruby, and an event planning business. Soon Aviva, now Jane Young, is persuaded to run for local office and her secret previous life is in danger of being outed because, you know, the internet is forever.
Told through the vantage point of several female characters, Rachel (Aviva’s mother), Jane, Ruby and Embeth, the congressman’s wife, Zevin has written a book that is not a political novel but a feminist novel. Women’s roles are circumscribed, even in today’s America, and Young Jane Young is perfect for this particular moment in politics.
Embeth represents the long suffering wife who endures the humiliation of her husband’s affair but stays with him through it all, as have many before her. In the political world, for a man at least, infidelity does not seem to be a hindrance in public office.
Aviva, who made a mistake but had the misfortune to make that mistake at the dawn of the digital age, knows that her life as Aviva will never be the same and is smart enough to see that even as a young woman. “I’m not a murderer….I’m just a slut, and you can’t be acquitted of that.”
Rachel has tried to be a good friend and mother to her daughter but realizes that she can’t protect her daughter from the world as it exists. Slut shaming is as old as time and the internet has just made it easier and harder to fight against.
Ruby is a feisty young teenager, bold and opinionated and honest, brought up by a mother who, having suffered the humiliation that she did, is determined that her own daughter be strong and independent. But when Ruby discovers Jane's story, she has nothing but contempt for her mother.
This book is a lively and even breezy read, captivating in its style and sometimes laugh out loud funny. But don’t be fooled by that. Zevin deals with a real and pervasive issue in today’s political culture – women are judged by different measures than men, the political world still bows to the gendered structures that have been in place for so long and woe betide the woman who tries to challenge that status quo – be they politician, wife, lover or citizen.
Zevin deploys a variety of different techniques from internal monologue to epistolary (via email) to a Choose Your Own Adventure section. All are perfect for their characters and it makes for an entertaining and absorbing read.
If you want to be thoroughly entertained with a good weekend read, this witty book is perfect. If you want to look at women and politics through a different lens this book is for you too.
BEFORE YOU READ:
Length: 294 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Humor
Themes: mothers and daughters, interns, mistresses, politics,
Commitment: The perfect weekend read
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