JCC MetroWest Book Group presents, Jessica Anya Blau’s, “Mary Jane”

In 1970s Baltimore, fourteen-year-old Mary Jane Dillard takes a summer job nannying for a Jewish psychiatrist’s family in a gone-wild household utterly unlike the Presbyterian, straight-arrow, conservative one she knows. The Cones are blunt, messy, loud, affectionate, and are attempting to rehabilitate a heroin-addicted rock star and his actress wife in their attic suite. They give Mary Jane a crash course in living out loud, introducing her to new experiences, music, and ideas: bralessness, group therapy, Black-owned record stores, and healthy open marriage. Mary Jane introduces the Cones to regular mealtimes and crisply ironed shirts but starts to see her President Ford-worshipping parents in a different light. A charming and poignant tale of desire, image, Americana, and chosen family.

FREE

12:00 Book Group discussion
1:00 Presentation with the author