Retro Review: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

When the late Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar was released in 1963, it was considered groundbreaking. It focused on topics quite controversial just over 60 years ago, including ambition in young women in a time when women were supposed to desire only marriage and motherhood and dealing with horrifying mental health issues. Originally published under the name Victoria Lucas, Sylvia’s only novel is still considered a classic in the feminist canon. But how well does The Bell Jar hold up in 2024? I decided to read it and found out for myself.

Meet Esther Greenwood, raised in the Boston suburbs by her widowed mother, Esther is now in college, which is being funded by a wealthy local author. It is the summer of 1953, and Esther has procured an internship with the fictional women’s magazine “Ladies Day” in New York City. Though Esther’s days are filled with magazine-related activities, and her nights trying to socialize with her fellow interns, Esther feels disconnected and empty. She just can’t work up the excitement over this opportunity that most girls would give their eye teeth for. Esther is riddled with anxiety and depression. Can she shake out of this funk?

Several incidents occur during Esther’s internship that Plath goes into great detail to describe. Esther talks about the various assignments for “Ladies Day” the interns get to work on as well as the nice swag they all receive (not to mention the horrid food poisoning everyone gets at a luncheon). She also describes Esther trying to befriend her fellow interns like the flirtatious and sociable Doreen and the very pious and naïve Betsy, who Esther is more drawn towards. Esther also reminisces about the various scrapes she gets into when it comes to men, like when a local New York City radio host tries to seduce her, but later he decides to date Doreen. And towards the end of her internship, Esther is nearly raped at a country club party she attends with Doreen. Esther escapes but this causes her to throw out her new clothing and sends her further into despair.

After the internship ends, Esther returns to her childhood home. During this time, Esther is absolutely crushed when another scholarship opportunity, a writing course featuring a well-known author, does not come through. She is not accepted into this prestigious program. Esther tries to fill her time before school resumes in the fall by writing a novel. Yet, she thinks she lacks the life experience to write a proper book. And she also questions what her life will be like after she graduates from college. Up till then, Esther’s whole life has revolved around academics. Will she have a career or will so end up “just a wife and mother” as the fifties often dictated to women back then.

Esther continues to fall into deeper and deeper depression, not being able to sleep or attend to basic activities. She does see a psychiatrist for a while (whom she doesn’t exactly warm up to because she thinks he’s too handsome). And when this psychiatrist suggest electroconvulsive therapy, better known as ECT. The ECT doesn’t work, and Esther makes some half-hearted suicide attempt.

However, she does nearly die after she crawls into a cellar and takes far too many sleeping pills. When her mother can’t find Esther, it is assumed she has been kidnapped and possibly murdered, which the media takes note of. Once discovered, Esther spends time at several mental hospitals, the last one paid for by her college benefactor, the writer who is named Philomena Guinea. It is at this facility, Esther meets Dr. Nolan, a woman therapist, receives questionable treatments including insulin shots, and more ECT. She also meets another patient named Joan, and it is implied Joan is a lesbian who is attracted to Esther. Esther is not fond of Joan at all.

Esther also muses about her old boyfriend, Buddy. Buddy thinks the two might get married someday, but Esther won’t entertain the idea. Esther thinks Buddy is a hypocrite because he lost his virginity to another woman instead of staying pure for Esther. It is also found out that Joan also dated buddy (even though she may be heavily closeted).

During her sessions with Dr. Nolan, Esther bemoans the life women back then must lead and she wants to have the same freedom men have, which includes everything from having sex (Dr. Nolan suggest Esther be fitted with a diaphragm), and to have a full life outside of total domesticity. And as the The Bell Jar ends, Buddy visits Esther and wonders if he’s the cause of both Esther and Joan going crazy and ended up hospitalized. Perhaps he did have a part in it, but who cares? Esther is relieved when Buddy decides to end their non-engagement. Now she is free to really live.

While reading The Bell Jar, I could understand why it was so groundbreaking when it was published in 1963. It portrayed a young woman who had ambition beyond getting married and having oodles of children. It’s wonderful Esther is smart and has goals her life that don’t necessarily include marriage and motherhood solely. And as someone who has dealt with mental health issues, I appreciate a novel that spoke of one woman’s struggle and her fight to remedy herself.

However, in 2024, The Bell Jar just cuts different. For one thing, there is a lot of racism in this book. Esther talks about the ugliness of Peruvians and Aztecs. She also keeps referring to a Black orderly at the mental hospital as the Negro. He is never given a name or just referred to his profession as an orderly. Plus, I found Esther to be rather insufferable to the other women in the book whether it was her mother (who struggled greatly to raise her without Esther’s father) or looking down on a woman in the neighborhood who is raising a large brood of children.

Still, I do think The Bell Jar is an important work. Just keep in mind how things have changed since the fifties when it takes place, and in 1963, when it was published. And be grateful things have changed for women in the past sixty years…or have they? Hmm.

Retro Review: The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe

Before there was such chick lit classics like Valley of the Dolls, Bridget Jones Diary, and Sex and the City, there was Rona Jaffe’s iconic The Best of Everything. Several years ago, I did a retro review of Ms. Jaffe’s book Class Reunion. I decided to revisit the book that launched Jaffe’s writing career back in 1958.

The Best of Everything focuses mostly on several young women living and loving in New York City. They all work in some capacity at Fabian Publishing. Caroline Bender (who might be considered the main character) is a recent graduate from Radcliffe and has just had her heart broken because her fiancé has married another woman. April Morrison is naïve lass hailing from Colorado. Gregg Adams (yes, a woman named Gregg) is an aspiring actress. And Barbara Lamont is a struggling single mother trying to make it after a divorce.

The Best of Everything takes place in the early 1950s. The career women are all career gals, and the men are all cads. The women in the typing pool all try to evade the advances of lecherous Fabian executive Mr. Shalimar. And Caroline especially has to deal with the bitchy and imperious older female editor Amanda Farrow. Remember this is a time where women were just supposed to deal with sexual harassment (long before the #MeToo movement), and there was no idea of a sisterhood in the workplace.

Caroline especially has ambitions that go beyond the typing pool. She starts reading stories sent into Fabian and shows a great deal of potential to be a top notch editor. But Amanda often tries to put a damper on Caroline’s aspirations, and not surprisingly, Amanda also has trouble keeping secretaries. And though Barbara struggles as a single mother, she shows promise as a writer, and is writing columns for a women’s magazine.

But it’s love and romance that are the women’s true calling. Remember, this is the fifties, and a woman’s highest calling with being a wife and a mother. The ladies make there way through the thorny world of dating. Caroline pines for her former fiancé. And even though there are other available men to date, Caroline jumps at the chance when her former fiancé comes back into her life. Is he going to leave his wife for her or is Caroline just going to be some hookup in the big city?

April naively thinks the society man she is dating will marry her when she announces her pregnancy, but instead he takes her to a dodgy abortionist to get rid of it. Barbara desires to get married again, but is leery after going through a divorce. Won’t men think she’s a fallen woman because she’s a divorcee and a single mom? And Gregg becomes obsessed with a producer and begins to stalk him. It doesn’t end very well for her. It seems only the women’s Fabian co-worker, Mary Agnes, has grabbed the the brass ring of true womanhood. She gets married and soon after is blooming with child.

And as The Best of Everything commences, there are no specific happy ending and things aren’t tidily wrapped up in a bow. It leaves you guessing. Will these ladies find love and success in the workplace or is “having it all” a fairy tale? How will these ladies navigate the 1960s? How will they react to the sexual revolution, civil rights, the women’s lib movement, and the Vietnam war? We don’t find out, but we can speculate.

Published 65 years ago, The Best of Everything was quite shocking and risqué. It featured a cast of women characters who desired careers at a time when women were only supposed to desire husbands, babies, and domesticity in the suburbs. Jaffe was brutally honest in her depiction of women in a particular time in big city America. A lot of things have changed since the early fifties for women, and sadly, a lot of people are trying to shove us back to that time. The Best of Everything is a primer on how women are fully-dimensional human beings with desires in the boardroom and the bedroom. The Best of Everything is both timeless and timely.

Retro Review: Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher

I first became aware of Carrie Fisher when I saw the movie “Star Wars” back in 1977 where she played the iconic Princess Leia. Instead of being a simpering wuss like so many princesses I grew up with, Princess Leia was totally bad ass, and I loved her for that. But Carrie Fisher was so much more than Princess Leia. She was also a talented script doctor and author, her first book being Postcards from the Edge, which was published in 1987.

Postcards from the Edge follows the story of one Suzanne Vale. Suzanne is an actress and as the book begins, Suzanne has had a drug overdose and is now drying out in a rehab center. There are several sections to Postcards from the Edge. The first part follows postcards Suzanne sends to members of her family while she’s in rehab. Remember, this book takes place in the 1980s and postcards were the way people could briefly communicate when a phone wasn’t available. In 2023, people would be communicating via emails or texts. But Emails from the Edge or Texts from the Edge doesn’t quite have the right zing. While in treatment, Suzanne also tries to keep up with journaling, writing about her experiences in rehab and coming to grips with her addiction. She also shares her flirtation with a fellow addict named Alex.

When Suzanne finally gets out of rehab, she starts dating a producer named Jack Burroughs. This part features dialogue between Suzanne and Jack. It also features Suzanne speaking to her therapist, and Jack speaking to his lawyer (who in a way is kind of a therapist).

The last three sections follow Suzanne’s life as she tries to revive her career and stay clean. She’s making a movie and living with her grandparents during filming. While filming, she’s constantly being hassled for being overly tense, and is chided for not chilling out enough. Later one, we follow Suzanne through her non-acting life, working out with her trainer, hanging out with friends, industry events, and various meetings related to her career. During this time, Suzanne meets an author, and later she develops a relationship with this author while also facing the anniversary of her overdose and her time in rehab. And in the epilogue, Suzanne writes a letter to the doctor who pumped her stomach when she overdosed. Interestingly enough, the doctor had sought her out. Suzanne lets him know that she’s still clean, on the mend, and doing so much better. The doctor even asks Suzanne if she’s seeing someone, and she can’t help but feel a little charmed by his interest. And though Suzanne knows her life is better than a lot of people’s, she still doesn’t quite feel at peace.

Postcards from the Edge isn’t a book that has a strong plot. It is more about Suzanne’s internal musings and facing her shortcomings and challenges. Suzanne is written in a way that is relatable. And Fisher gives her just the right humor to make Suzanne funny. Suzanne Vale is all too human, and Postcards from the Edge (despite the 80s of it-MTV showing videos, cocaine use) is still relevant today. I wish Fisher was still with us in 2023. We could really use her unique voice as a writer.

Reading to Reels: A Place in the Sun

In the drama A Place in the Sun, Montgomery Clift plays George Eastman. Though related to a rich industrialist named Charles Eastman, George is looked down upon because his family is poor. Still, that doesn’t stop him from taking a job in his uncle’s factory. George hopes his work ethic will impress his uncle so he can work his way up, and also work his way into his uncle’s upper crust world.

Though dating co-workers is strictly verboten, George starts dating fellow factory worker Alice Tripp (Shelly Winters). Alice is plain-looking and poor but truly smitten by George and his connections to his wealthy uncle even though George’s connections seem to be in name only.

Despite dating Alice, George falls in love with Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor in her first adult role) after meeting her at a party. Angela is not only beautiful she is also from a wealthy family. Dating Angela brings George closer to the upper crust world he always desired.

However, Alice is hardly out of the picture, and it isn’t before long she announces she is pregnant with George’s child. She believes this will prompt George to marry her. Not surprisingly, George is not happy with this idea, especially since he is in love with Angela. He tells Alice to have an abortion but she refuses. She figures since George is getting closer to his uncle’s world of wealth, he’ll have no problem supporting a wife and child.

Alice soon sees a newspaper of photo of George and Angela and realizes he is cheating on her. Alice confronts George, threatening to tell everyone about what is going on between them and about the pregnancy. He better marry her or else

To save face, George takes Alice to the local city hall for a quick elopement. However, it is Labor Day week-end and city hall is closed. Instead of ditching Alice, George convinces her they should visit a nearby lake. Not quite realizing what George has in mind, Alice agrees.

While renting a boat under a false name, George acts nervous. Finding out there are no people on the lake George thinks this might be a good time to murder Alice and dispose of her body. With Alice out of the picture George is free to continue dating Angela and free from marrying Alice.

However, once Alice tells George how excited she is about their future and the upcoming birth of their child. George has a change of heart. He can’t murder Alice. He must do the right thing and marry her. But when Alice stands up in the boat, the boat capsizes, and Alice does drown.

George, however, is safe, and he swims to shore. He goes to Angela’s family lake home and struggles to keep the story of Alice’s drowning a secret. But before long Alice’s body is discovered, her drowning is ruled a homicide.

With a great deal of evidence stacked against him George is arrested for Angela’s death. This happens just as George is going to ask for Angela’s hand in marriage.

Though George is innocent, the evidence is overwhelming. He tries to explain what lead up to Alice’s accidental drowning, but the prosecutor (Raymond Burr) aggressively pulls apart George’s testimony. The prosecutor convinces the jury that George committed first degree murder and the jury finds him guilty. George is sentenced to the electric chair.

As George faces his last days he pours his heart out in a letter to Angela. He claims he did not kill Alice but her drowning was perhaps his only way to leave his poor, underprivileged past behind and start fresh with Angela.

A Place in the Sun is lushly filmed in black and white, and its romantic scenes are unbelievably passionate and erotic. Elizabeth Taylor’s beauty is beyond compare and she and Montgomery Clift have electric chemistry that leaps off the screen. A Place in the Sun was nominated for nine Oscars and won six, including a best director Oscar for George Stevens.

Based on the Theodore Dreiser novel, An American Tragedy, A Place in the Sun highlights the huge gap between rich and poor, even among family members. It also conveys how one’s ambitious desires, and obsession with money and status can make people consider doing horrible things. A Place in the Sun also shows how people can be victims and victimize others.

Retro Review: Sex Tips for Girls by Cynthia Heimel

From Jane Austen to Dorothy Parker to Carrie Bradshaw to the sex-drenched pages of Cosmopolitan magazine, women having always been writing about the female predicament when it comes to romance and sex. Whether you’re earning for Mr. Right or navigating a one-night-stand, it’s very likely a woman wrote about these things.

One of these women, was the late Cynthia Heimel. Heimel was born in 1947 and moved to New York City after being raised in Philadelphia. She wrote for publications like The New York Times, New York Magazine, and The Village Voice (she even had a stint at Penthouse). Sure, she was the glamorous girl about town, but she also dealt with divorce and struggles as a single mom, which she wrote about with honesty and humor.

Heimel called herself a feminist, and she proved feminists could be funny, sexy, and love men (though at times she found them perplexing). She regarded us ladies as fully-actualized human beings, not merely just tits, butts, and pussy. Her writing trampled on the tired tropes of women being either pure Madonnas or trashy harlots. Heimel was pretty much one of the coolest dames in the universe.

Heimel came of age during the advent of the Pill, the sexual revolution and second wave feminism. All of these things influences her as a talented and accomplished sexpert/humorist mash-up.

I had read plenty of Heimel’s books back in the 1990s and loved them. I considered Heimel to be the cool as shit auntie I wish I had. Yet, I had never read her iconic 1983 debut Sex Tips for Girls. I was only familiar with it because someone read passages from it at a party I attended ages ago. I decided to dust off and read an ancient copy of Sex Tips for Girls and share my review on what would have been Heimel’s 76th birthday.

In the opening chapter, “Who Are We?,” Heimel questions the state of being a woman in the early 1980s, the Reagan years when many hippies were turning into yuppies and more conserved with corner office than food co-ops and stock options were more important than “sticking it to the Man!” But Heimel’s words due ring true 40 years later. Should we be activists? Should we purse a rich man? Should we eat natural foods?

Other chapters in Sex Tips for Girls cover topics like “The Great Boyfriend Crunch,” Sex and the Single Parent,” “Lingerie Do’s and Don’ts” and “How to Cure a Broken Heart.” None of these topics would look out of place in a women’s magazine or dating manual in 2023. Heimel also offers various sex tips like don’t point and laugh at a gentleman’s penis. For some reason, dudes have a problem with this.

However, there are some parts of the book that need to be left in the 1980s-like totally eschewing condoms. Granted, back in the early 1980s, AIDS was considered a gay man’s disease. It was a few years later, the straights started to take AIDS very seriously. Also, keep in mind, Sex Tips for Girls is aimed at women who are cisgender and straight.

And of course, there have been a lot of changes since Sex Tips for Girls was released 40 years ago. We’ve seen the rise of the internet, social media, and dating apps, all have which influenced the way men and women relate to each other (and it’s not always pretty).

I wish Heimel was still with us. She died in 2018 and according to reports she had dementia. It’s so sad her kick ass brain affected by something so horrific. I would love to get Heimel’s take on the #MeToo movement, a former president who bragged about grabbing women by their genitals, and the odious Moms for Liberty. And what would she think about tradwives and Only Fans, not too mention there are people on the internet who think those are the only two types of women out there, and don’t realize there is a huge group of wonderful women between those two extremes.

So go back in time and read “Sex Tips for Girls” for both the nostalgia and how it relates to sex, relationships and dating in 2023.

Retro Review: Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen by Alix Kates Shulman

When Alix Kates Shulman’s 1972 novel came out it was considered shocking and groundbreaking. It covered topics women coming of age in the mid-20th century weren’t supposed to talk about, let alone experience. These topics included premarital sex, adultery, abortion, and divorce. Though shocking over 50 years ago, Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen is thought in some circles to be a feminist classic. Intrigued, I decided to read Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen, and try to figure out why it’s so cherished among some readers.

Meet Sasha Davis. She is coming of age in Ohio during the 1950s and 1960s. She growing up in Ohio, and lives a very comfortable middle class suburb, and is beloved by her parents. For young Sasha, being beautiful and attracting a man is of utmost importance. Fortunately, she’s pretty and popular. She is at no loss finding suitors, and when she is crowned queen at the dance, Sasha feels she’s reached the the highest of heights.

After high school graduation, Sasha goes to college. Having lost her virginity to a high school boyfriend, Sasha has her fair share of lovers, including a much older and married professor. There are times Sasha acts as if the professor’s wife is a mere nuisance, not the one who is actually being cheated on.

Sasha marries her first husband, but marriage does not fulfill her in the way she wants and she cheats on him continuously. After their divorce, she marries once again, and on the surface things look great, especially after Sasha has two daughters and tries to play the contented housewife. But looks can be deceiving, and despite having a loving new husband and two healthy and happy little girls, you get the idea that something is amiss in Sasha’s life. And you wonder if this marriage will also end up in divorce, especially when Sasha’s best friend from college, Roxanne, leaves her husband (they “had” to get married because Roxanne was pregnant and it was still a time of shotgun weddings and legal abortions).

Sasha is no dummy. She’s educated and curious, and fortunately lives in New York City where she has access to museums, libraries and other intellectual pursuits. Still, being beautiful and having a man is of utmost importance to her, no matter how poorly some guy may treat her or how less than enthused she was by a lover.

For the most part, I liked Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen. Kates Shulman is a very detailed writer of a time I only know from history books and binge watching “Mad Man.” Kates Shulman is quite thorough of a time when women were only supposed to aspire to be devoted wives and mothers in pursuit of that perfect pot roast recipe. Things like divorce, pre-marital sex, adultery, STDs, and back alley abortions were talked about in hushed tones if at all. But all of these things are covered thoroughly in Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen. And though Sasha is quite the flawed protagonist and doesn’t seem to show a lot of growth from her teen years to her thirties, you can understand why this book was so damn shocking when it was released just over 50 years ago. Though I don’t think Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen is the feminist achievement some people have claimed it to be, I do think it’s an important book that captures a zeitgeist of some women of that time period.

Retro Review: Fabulous Nobodies by Lee Tulloch

Imagine a time before reality television and social media influencers. Imagine a time when the likes of Carrie Bradshaw and her coterie of sex and fashion obsessed pals were merely a gleam in Candace Bushnell’s eyes. It’s the late 1980s. New York City is teaming with the hippest and hottest clubs-Danceteria, Palladium, Limelight, and Club 57. The clubs are teeming with the young, hip, and fashionable, many of them yearning to be famous.

One of these people is Reality Nirvana Tuttle (yes, her mother is a hippie). In Lee Tulloch’s 1989 novel, Fabulous Nobodies, Reality is currently working as a “door whore” at lower Manhattan’s latest, hippest club, Less is More. Reality’s job is to only allow people in the club who meet her exacting standards. They must have the best style and a unique flair.

Reality is only 20 years old. She escaped her upper New York small town and her mother’s hippie lifestyle to live among the coolest people she can find in New York City. Her friend, Phoebe Johnson emulates Audrey Hepburn and is the junior shoe editor at “Perfect Woman” magazine. Freddie Barnstable is a transvestite (transgender by today’s vernacular). Freddie is always on the hunt for the perfect fashion find and has a dog named Balenciaga. And then there is Hugo Falk, a gossip columnist with the magazine “Frenzee.”

Reality lives for fashion, and has a collection of designer frocks that she has named after famous people and characters-Petula Clark, Gina Lollabrigida, and so on. Not only does she have a collection of designer frocks, Reality also talks to these frocks as if they are cherished friends. However, there is something missing from her clothes closet, and that’s a Chanel suit. How Reality can afford her designer duds is never fully explained. She can’t make much money as a door whore at Less is More. But there is talk of her shopping at some vintage stores that dot her Manhattan neighborhood.

Reality has another desire. She wants to be famous? But how do you got about this before a time of reality show stars like the Kardashians or taking up precious internet space as a fashion influencer? Reality figures she can cozy up to Hugo Falk and he’ll write about her for his column in “Frenzee.”

But of course, things don’t go quite smoothly. Reality loses her job at Less is More when she doesn’t recognize Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and denies her entry into the club. Completely forlorn and at a loss, Reality is convinced by Freddie that they should turn their apartments into a club. Despite this probably being illegal, they turn their apartments into a club, which attracts the fabulous and fabulous adjacent.

Other things happen, too. Reality’s friendship with Phoebe is tested. Reality finds the elusive Chanel suit of her dreams, but is a Chanel suit really her? Reality acquires an admirer/stalker named Brooke. A bit of a mishap occurs while people are partying at her and Freddie’s club, which really puts a damper on things.

And then Hugo interviews and writes a piece about Reality for “Frenzee” magazine. Unfortunately, this feature on Reality isn’t exactly flattering, and a very weird encounter with Hugo jostles Reality a wee bit.

In the end, Fabulous Nobodies is a satirical look at a very specific time. Reality never shows much growth as a character, but then again she’s only 20. I was left wondering where Reality would be in the 2020s. She’d now be in her fifties. Would she have gotten married, left Manhattan for the suburbs, had a bunch of kids, and was just an average middle aged woman with a crazy past? Would she have become a fashion influencer, showing off her frocks and interviewing them on her Instagram page? Would she have ended up on Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New York City?” Who knows? But Fabulous Nobodies certainly showcases the huge desire people have for being famous no matter what…and the perfect Chanel suit, of course.

Retro Review: Summer Sisters by Judy Blume

It’s been years since I’ve written a retro review, and I can’t think of a better retro review than Judy Blume’s 1998 novel, Summer Sisters.

Though Judy Blume is mostly known for writing books for younger audiences, she is has also written for adults. Her books for adults include Wifey, Smart Women, and most recently, In the Unlikely Event. When I came across her book Summer Sisters at one of those Little Free Libraries, I quickly picked it up, and I’m glad I did.

Summer Sisters opens in the early 1990s. Vix is 25, living in New York City, and works in public relations. Out of the blue, she gets a call from Caitlin. Caitlin is getting married and the groom-to-be just happens to be Vix’s old boyfriend Bru. Caitlin asks Vix to be her maid of honor. As Summer Sisters unfolds you learn how Vix and Caitlin have come to this situation.

In Santa Fe, New Mexico Victoria Leonard and Caitlin Somers meet during their 6th grade year. Though they are quite different from each other, they become fast friends. Caitlin is quite privileged and lives with her mother Phoebe. Her father, Lamb (short for Lambert) lives on Martha’s Vineyard. Victoria, who often goes by the name Vix, lives a quite different existence. She’s one of four children (her younger brother, Nathan, has Muscular Dystrophy), her parents are stressed out, and and shoddy finances are a constant worry.

As their school year ends, Caitlin asks Vix to spend the summer with her in Martha’s Vineyard. Vix jumps at the chance and is excited and relieved to be away from the dysfunction of her family home. And year after year, the girls spend their summers together in Martha’s Vineyard.

It’s a cliché that that opposites attract, but sometimes clichés ring true. Vix is down-to-earth and practical. Caitlin is impetuous and wild. Yet, they are drawn to each other as they spend their summers discovering boys, masturbation, and sex, and take on several summer jobs. They both acquire boyfriends during their summers in Martha’s Vineyard. Caitlin starts dating Von, and Vix starts dating Bru.

However, things aren’t always so wonderful. Vix deals with a family tragedy and Caitlin copes with Lamb marrying a lady named Abby. And at a birthday celebration for Vix, Vix deals with something that makes her question her friendship with Caitlin. Yet, somehow the girls are able to patch things up. Vix is drawn into Caitlin’s orbit and does benefit from having Caitlin as her friend. Lamb and Abby think of Vix as another daughter, and Vix gains greatly from their generosity.

After Vix and Caitlin graduate from high school, they go their separate ways. Though originally Caitlin was to attend Wellesley, she has a change of heart and decides to travel all over Europe having a lots of crazy adventures. Vix, on the other hand, goes to Harvard on scholarship. It is there she befriends her roommates Paisley and Maia, and realizes there is a world outside of Caitlin.

After graduation, Vix moves to New York City, rooms with Maia and Paisley, and gets a job with a large public relations firm. Bru asks her to marry him, but she turns him down. And Caitlin gets bored with Europe and ends up in Seattle where she plans to open up a restaurant with two of her gay friends.

Upon finding out about Caitlin’s impending marriage to Bru, Vix decides to go to the wedding. Betrayals are found out and dirty deeds are done, and in the end Vix and Caitlin are in very different places.

Summer Sisters is filled with both the popular culture and social changes and upheavals of the 1970s and 1980s. Chapters are named after hit songs (“Dancing Queen”, “We are the World”) and the AIDS crisis and the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am plane of Lockerbie, Scotland are mentioned. Summer Sisters is mostly told from the point of view of Vix, but other characters also narrate the story.

While reading Summer Sisters, I couldn’t help but compare it to the atrocious Pretty, Little Dirty, which I reviewed over the summer. Both are coming of age novels featuring Gen X girls during the 1970s and 1980s. Yet, Summer Sisters is so much more better written with more dimensional characters and a fascinating tale that draws you in. The main characters in Pretty, Little Dirty just repelled me. And though I found tempestuous and self-absorbed Caitlin way too much to at times, I can understand why the more low-key and relatable Vix was drawn to her. Caitlin is quite charismatic and her upper crust lifestyle is intoxicating.

Summer Sisters is a fabulous read, one I could barely put down. And at the same time, I didn’t want to ever end. Once again, Judy Blume proves why she is such a beloved author. She just writes damn good books.

Retro Review: Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf is an iconic figure of literature. Her body of work includes Orlando: The Biography, Women and Writing, and A Room of One’s Own. One of her popular novels is Mrs. Dalloway, which is my latest retro review.

Mrs. Dalloway is a story about a single day in the life of a middle-aged woman named Clarissa Dalloway. Mrs. Dalloway is planning a party and wrapped in finalizing the details-shopping for flowers, decorations, and a new frock.

While busy with preparations, Mrs. Dalloway’s mind is flooded with memories of her youth, a much simpler time. And though comfortably married, she can’t help but think of the love of her younger days, Peter Walsh. Is her true love? And why is he back in her life?

But this is not only Mrs. Dalloway’s story. It is also the story of the people who orbit her life, including her husband, daughter, and various friends and acquaintances.

Mrs. Dalloway is also the tale of a young World War 1 veteran named Septimus Smith and his Italian wife Lucrezia. Smith is suffering from shell shock, which is now known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. And it affecting his marriage.

Mrs. Dalloway envisions a more genteel time in post-war Britain when troubles were brewing below the surface. In a few years the planet would be dealing with the Great Depression and later World War 2.

Mrs. Dalloway fully describes the details that make up one’s life, both the great and the small.

*My copy of Mrs. Dalloway has a forward by author Maureen Howard and provides thoughtful questions for book discussion groups and individual readers.

Retro Review: The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes

When I look back at the books I loved as a child I think of the books by Judy Blume, Dr. Seuss, and Laura Ingalls Wilder. I think of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the poetry of Shel Silverstein. I think of the classics and think of getting lost in a world of fairy tales, myths, legends, and folklore.

And then there is the Newberry Medal Winner The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes.

Even as a little girl I was a bit of a fashionista. I played dress up and adored my Barbies. I even made clothes for my paper dolls.

The Hundred Dresses is about two classmates and besties, Maddie and Peggy. Wanda Petronski is their classmate.

Wanda has a funny last name, lives in a scary place called Boggins Heights, and her family is very poor, not exactly a recipe for popularity.

Wanda also wears the same raggedy dresseveryday, which her leads her classmates to tease her, including Maddie and Peggy.

Wanda tells her classmates she has a hundred dresses at home. She has to be lying. If this is true why does she wear she wear the same dress? The girls continue to tease Wanda. They are total bullies.

Then one day Wanda isn’t in class. It turns out she won’t be back. The Petronski family is moving.

Soon after the class learns about Wanda’s hundred dresses, conveyed by her creative and artistic talents.

Though released in 1944, The Hundred Dresses is very important book. Bullying still exists and people deemed as different are still demonized.

But on a positive note, The Hundred Dresses is an inspirational tale of how art and creative expression can be an act of healing and human connection.

I loved this book as a child, truly appreciate it as an adult. Estes’s writing is warm and heartfelt. And Louis Slobodkin’s impressionistic illustrations are lovely.

The Hundred Dresses is a tale that endures.