Jessica Anya Blau did something weirdly magical with Mary Jane a novel. She captured that specific, sweaty, confusing transition between being a kid who follows all the rules and an adult who realizes the rules are mostly made up. It’s 1970s Baltimore. It’s a world of straight-laced families, secret cigarette smokes, and the sudden intrusion of rock-and-roll chaos into a suburban living room.
If you haven’t read it yet, you’re missing out on one of the most tactile coming-of-age stories written in the last decade. It isn't just a book about a nanny. Honestly, it’s a manual on how to keep your soul intact when your upbringing is trying to shrink it.
The World of Mary Jane a Novel
Mary Jane Dillard is fourteen. She’s "good." She wears ironed clothes. She sings in the church choir. Her mother is the kind of woman who measures success by the cleanliness of a kitchen floor and the lack of "bohemian" influence in the neighborhood. Then Mary Jane gets a summer job.
She thinks she’s just nannying for the Cone family. Dr. Cone is a psychiatrist. He’s messy. His house is a disaster of books, records, and unwashed dishes. It’s the polar opposite of the Dillard household. But the real kicker? Dr. Cone is treating a world-famous rock star, Jimmy Gates, for drug addiction. And he’s doing it in his house.
Suddenly, this polite girl from a repressed background is making tuna fish sandwiches for a man the rest of the world sees as a god.
Why the 1970s Setting Actually Matters
It isn't just window dressing. The 1970s represented a massive cultural fracture. You had the lingering, suffocating etiquette of the 1950s battling the raw, drug-fueled liberation of the hippie movement. Mary Jane sits right on the fault line. Blau uses the setting to highlight how terrifying—and thrilling—it is to see your parents' worldview get dismantled in real-time.
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The Characters That Make This Book Sing
Most books give you a protagonist and a bunch of cardboard cutouts. Not here.
- Mary Jane: She’s observant. She doesn't rebel by screaming; she rebels by noticing. She starts to see that the "refined" people in her life are often the most miserable.
- Izzy Cone: The five-year-old she’s watching. Izzy is the catalyst. She’s wild, neglected in a "progressive" way, and desperately needs the structure Mary Jane provides.
- Jimmy Gates: He’s loosely based on the archetype of a 70s rock legend—think Gregg Allman or Keith Richards vibes. He’s vulnerable. He’s not a caricature of an addict; he’s a person trying to survive his own fame.
- Sheba: Jimmy’s movie-star wife. She is the ultimate foil to Mary Jane’s mother. She’s glamorous, messy, and unapologetically female in a way Mary Jane has never seen.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Plot
People call Mary Jane a novel a "light summer read."
That’s a bit of a disservice. Sure, the prose is breezy and the dialogue snaps, but the underlying themes are heavy. It’s about the performative nature of "decency." Mary Jane’s mother is obsessed with appearances, but her "decency" is often cruel. Meanwhile, the "sinners" in the Cone house—the addicts, the shrinks, the rock stars—are practicing genuine radical empathy.
It’s a flip of the script. The people who look "good" are often stagnant. The people who look "bad" are often the only ones actually growing.
The Power of Music as a Narrative Device
Music is a character here. When Mary Jane hears Jimmy and Sheba sing together, it’s a religious experience. It’s more spiritual than anything she’s found in her actual church. Blau describes music in a way that feels physical. You can almost hear the scratching of the needle on the vinyl. For Mary Jane, music becomes the bridge between her old, gray world and this new, Technicolor reality.
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The Impact of Direct Honesty
There is a scene involving a simple dinner that perfectly encapsulates the book’s tension. In the Dillard house, dinner is silent, structured, and performative. At the Cones, dinner is a chaotic exchange of ideas, emotions, and raw honesty. Mary Jane realizes that truth is loud. Truth is messy.
She starts to lie to her parents, not because she wants to be bad, but because she’s protecting the only "real" world she’s ever known. It’s a heartbreaking realization for a teenager: sometimes, to be a good person, you have to be a "bad" daughter.
Why This Book Trends Every Summer
It’s the vibe. There is a specific "summer book" energy that Mary Jane a novel possesses. It’s nostalgic without being sappy. It feels like the heat of July in Maryland—thick, humid, and full of potential.
But beyond the atmosphere, it resonates because everyone has a "Mary Jane summer." That one season where you realized your parents didn't know everything. The moment you stepped outside your bubble and realized the world was much bigger, much scarier, and much more beautiful than you were told.
Critical Reception and E-E-A-T
Critics at The New York Times and The Washington Post praised Blau for her restraint. She doesn't turn the story into a PSA about drugs or a lecture on 70s politics. She keeps the camera tight on Mary Jane’s face. It’s an intimate study of a girl finding her voice.
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Author Ann Patchett—someone who knows a thing or two about complex family dynamics—was a huge fan of this book. That’s a massive endorsement. Patchett’s own work often explores how "found families" can be more transformative than biological ones, which is the exact heartbeat of this story.
Actionable Steps for Readers and Aspiring Writers
If you’re looking to get the most out of Mary Jane a novel, or if you're a writer trying to capture this kind of "human" quality in your own work, here is how to approach it:
- Read it with a playlist. Put on some 1970s folk-rock. Listen to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. It provides a sensory layer that makes the prose pop.
- Watch for the "Quiet Rebellion." Pay attention to how Mary Jane doesn't change her entire personality. She integrates her new experiences into her old self. It’s a masterclass in realistic character development.
- Analyze the Dialogue. Jessica Anya Blau uses dialogue to show power dynamics. Notice who speaks first, who interrupts, and who stays silent.
- Explore "Found Family" Tropes. If you enjoyed this, look into other books that handle this theme, like The Dutch House or Daisy Jones & The Six. It’s a great way to understand how writers build chemistry between strangers.
Mary Jane a novel isn't just a story about a girl and a rock star. It’s a story about the exact moment the blinders come off. It’s about the cost of honesty and the beauty of a messy life.
Go get a copy. Read it on a porch. Let it remind you of the first time you realized you were a separate person from your parents. That’s a feeling that never really goes away, and Blau captures it better than almost anyone else in contemporary fiction. No fluff. Just a really, really good story about growing up.
Next Steps for Your Reading Journey:
- Check out Jessica Anya Blau’s previous work, like The Summer of Naked Swim Parties, to see how she’s refined her "coming-of-age" style over the years.
- Compare the book to its film/TV rumors. There’s often talk of adaptations; seeing how a director handles the internal monologue of a character like Mary Jane is a fascinating study in media transition.
- Host a "70s Book Club" night. Use the recipes mentioned in the book (lots of tuna salad and casual 70s fare) to ground the discussion in the actual tactile world of the Dillard and Cone households.