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In the Unlikely Event

In the Unlikely Event 3

by Judy Blume
Paperback
Publication Date: 01/06/2015
3/5 Rating 3 Reviews

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$29.99
"She held the baby close, feeling the warmth of his little body, kissing his soft cheek. He looked right into her eyes.Outside the window, the wing broke away from the plane.Then they were falling . . . falling diagonally out of the sky."When three planes crashed in Elizabeth, New Jersey within the space of three months in the early 1950s, Newark airport was closed for a year. Each of these disasters was devastating not only for those on board, but also for the close-knit community of people on the ground. In Elizabeth, the plane crashes open up new wounds and mysteries - they bring some families together and tear others apart. But somehow, life continues - and amid grief and loss, hope and love survive.Inspired by real events, Judy Blume uses her imagination to interweave the stories of three generations of families, friends and strangers whose lives are forever changed in the aftermath. In The Unlikely Event is a captivating, deeply moving and unforgettable novel, written with the same warmth and authenticity that have won the hearts and minds of readers the world over for decades.
ISBN:
9781509801664
9781509801664
Category:
Contemporary fiction
Format:
Paperback
Publication Date:
01-06-2015
Language:
English
Publisher:
Pan Macmillan
Country of origin:
United Kingdom
Dimensions (mm):
234x155x30mm
Weight:
0.52kg
Judy Blume

For several decades Judy Blume has been winning legions of fans around the world with her stories.

More than eighty-two million copies of her books have been sold, and her work has been translated into thirty-two languages. She receives thousands of letters every month from readers of all ages who share their feelings and concerns with her.

Her much-loved books include Tiger Eyes, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, as well as adult novels Wifey, Smart Women and In the Unlikely Event. Judy lives in Key West, Florida, and New York City with her husband.

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3.33

Based on 3 reviews

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3 Reviews

At its core, Judy Blume's In The Unlikely Event is a story about growing up, finding and losing love and the often complicated relationship between mothers and daughters. Set in New Jersey in the early 1950s, In The Unlikely Event is a historical fiction based on three real planes crashes occurring within weeks of each other. The story portrays numerous characters impacted by the crashes and how they come to terms with this tragedy.

The amount of detail put into recreating the atmosphere of the time was astounding. For someone like myself, who is unfamiliar with 50s culture, this was a whole new world. Great detail is put into describing daily life from the popularity of Elizabeth Taylor, the glam of air travel to the fear of communism. The horror of the plane crashes themselves are also vividly brought to life. Blume, who was a teenager living in New Jersey at the time of the real crashes, has done vast amounts of research to bring her memories to life.

The use of multiple points of view (over 20 different characters) throughout the story drove me a little insane. With very short chapters and the rapidly changing points of view it was very difficult to keep all the characters and their relationships in check. In the early parts of the novel, I found I had forgotten who the character was by the time the story came back to their point of view. The whole thing seemed a bit pointless and didn't really add to the story as many of the characters weren't revisited or developed.

I hate to say it, but I was disappointed by this novel. While the story itself is interesting, it doesn't really develop or lead anywhere. I expected the crashes to play a larger role in the story, however, they were more of a backdrop to the characters everyday life. This was ultimately a story about people and how they endured through difficult events. It was the character of teenage Miri and her dynamic relationships with her mother, and her best friend Natalie that made the story passable.

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Judy Blume has had a prominent position on my bookshelf since the day my primary school was selling out her works during a library stocktake way back in the 90’s.

Out went the Enid Blyton, and in came the outdated, yet relatable stories that gave me an insight into the young girls mind. And with that came the realization was that we weren’t alone.

So my excitement about rediscovering Blume as an adult was tangible. I went crazy thinking about how she could relate her characters to a vastly changed world, and as an adult book, I was hoping that once again she’d hit on the issues that we face as young women in the millennial age – could lightning strike twice for Blume?

When we were introduced to Miri in “In the unlikely event” I was a bit surprised. Wasn’t this going to be an adult book, written from the perspective of an adult? Wasn’t she done with a teen narration? It seems not. This was a hard blow for me, because it’s not YA, yet it’s not what I was wanting from an adult novel.

Blume’s story relies heavily on her experience of the “Pleasantville” era – no terrorism, no financial crises, and no-one locks their doors in 1951. Planes falling from the sky are blamed on extra-terrestrials. There’s an innocence in this plot line that falls short of our reality in the present age.

Cultural lines and societal norms are very strong in the tale. Daughter is mentally ill? No-one must know! Child born out of wedlock? You’re lucky there’s a war on and you can blame his disappearance on WWII! Dating someone of a different ethnicity? Forget about it! This is striking in its lack of relevance to todays world. It highlights the struggles of the characters, but doesn’t provide enough of a context as to why this is imperative to the progression of the narrative.

There’s a lot of unfinished business in this book. There’s a lot of characters we are following, Rusty, Miri, Natale, Phil, Mason, Steve, Daisy, Christina, John, and the list goes on, and whilst as a whole there’s enough of a common thread to tie the stories together, it comes at the loss of a strong development of many of the characters.

Miri loses the most, she isn’t provided the opportunity to reflect on her friendships, relationships with her family, or the realization that her mother is young enough to follow new opportunities. She bemoans her first love but doesn’t grow from it.

The planes act as a catalyst for a lot of the story, but not enough to call it a main plot.

I finished this book thinking that if I wanted to reminisce about Blume’s glory days, I would have picked up one she wrote back in the 70’s.

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Judy Blume is and will always be a best-loved author. It was so exciting reading her new work (one of her more famous books is "Are You There God? It's me, Margaret" which I would also thoroughly recommend).

"In the Unlikely Event" is about three plane crashes that occurred within weeks of each other in New Jersey in the 50s and how this affected various people's lives. We take a look at three generations of people and how these situations affect them. While a work of fiction, Blume bases this book on true events (these plane crashes really did occur). She paints a rich American world now long gone, but still very interesting.

There are many perspectives and characters to follow in this book which got tiresome at times, but overall I think Blume has done a fabulous job with this novel and I recommend it to anyone who wants to be taken away to a very unique world that explores universally human themes (mostly, life goes on, even in the midst of trying circumstances).

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