Book Review: In Zanesville

Title: In Zanesville
Author: Jo Ann Beard
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown and Co.
Pub Date: Apr 2011
Read: Sept 2011
Source: McNally Jackson
Why: Even though I HATE when narrators are compared to Holden Caulfield of The Catcher in the Rye, I almost invariably end up reading said books… so you know, obviously it’s working. Really though, young protagonist in a novel marketed to adults? Sold.
Fulfills Challenge? Yes
Notes: N/A

Synopsis [from jacket copy]

The beguiling fourteen-year-old narrator of IN ZANESVILLE is a late bloomer. She is used to flying under the radar-a sidekick, a third wheel, a marching band dropout, a disastrous babysitter, the kind of girl whose Eureka moment is the discovery that “fudge” can’t be said with an English accent.

Luckily, she has a best friend, a similarly undiscovered girl with whom she shares the everyday adventures of a 1970s American girlhood, incidents through which a world is revealed, and character is forged.

In time, their friendship is tested– by their families’ claims on them, by a clique of popular girls who stumble upon them as if they were found objects, and by the first, startling, subversive intimations of womanhood.

With dry wit and piercing observation, Jo Ann Beard shows us that in the seemingly quiet streets of America’s innumerable Zanesvilles is a world of wonders, and that within the souls of the awkward and the overlooked often burns something radiant and unforgettable.

Review/Thoughts:
Well, here marks another book this year that I thought would become Instant Fave that I felt only lukewarm about. In Zanesville is divided into three parts that function somewhat irrespective of each other. The characters are the same but the events of the first section hardly seem relevant after it’s over. Ditto for the second section. I was reminded a bit of Joyce Carol Oates’ I’ll Take You There, which is similarly divided into three parts that function on their own, except to be fair to Beard at least her main character is recognizable throughout. I’ll Take You There felt as if Oates had written about three different women that she was trying to convince us was the same person. With Beard, I can see how the three sections create a sketchy portrait of one girl’s early adolescence — sketchy because the book never feels fully realized but rather somewhat anti-climactic. It’s unfortunate too because I like the main character for the most part. Beard does a good job of creating this Everygirl who does seem like she could be your average American teenager. The novel also has a timeless feeling to it. I had completely forgotten this book was set in the 1970s until the narrator makes mention of a menstrual belt in the third section. The book could have easily been set in present day because the narrator’s emotions and development are relatable. But these positive qualities never really make up for the fact that the novel doesn’t really seem to go anywhere. What is this novel moving toward exactly? I felt unsatisfied. I cared about the characters, but the author didn’t give me much of a storyline to care about. Perhaps the problem is that the sections act independently of each other, and this makes building toward something big(ger) difficult. All in all, the novel felt incomplete, and while I am not necessarily opposed to a novel where not much happens (um, The Catcher in the Rye, HELLO?), it just doesn’t work here. The other elements of the novel aren’t strong enough to counteract that.

Final Verdict: