In The Unlikely Event by Judy Blume, book review: Disaster strikes thrice but the jukebox plays on

A diverting trip down memory lane, where clunky exposition and cheesy dialogue are all forgiven

It’s fitting that Judy Blume has returned to her own childhood as the setting for her new novel. Mention Blume’s name to most women under 50, and they will immediately become misty-eyed about the teen angst of Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret or giggle at the mention of “Ralph” (an appendage, not a character). For those not acquainted, Blume has written 28 titles (mainly for “young adults”, although that term didn’t exist when she was writing in the 1970s) which have sold more than 85 million copies, been translated into 32 languages, and even been banned a few times.

So, there’s a heavy weight of expectation around Blume’s latest work, her first adult book in 16 years. In The Unlikely Event is set in 1950s Elizabeth, New Jersey. Shot through with newspaper clippings, song lyrics, shop signs, and adverts, this is a world of necking in cars (the “park and spark”), Elizabeth Taylor haircuts, Nat King Cole on the jukebox, war in Korea bubbling in the background. So far, so Happy Days, until three passenger planes crash in to the town in the space of three months. Almost unbelievably, these “unlikely events” were also real events which Blume herself experienced as a teenager. Details she gives about the crashes – a plane falls “like an angry wounded bird”, another is “broken cleanly in half like a swollen cream puff” – and the aftermath – “he didn’t tell her that her husband’s wrists were broken from trying to hold the controls steady” – are visceral and memorable.

At times the plot is a bit telegraphed (one character’s eating disorder is straight out of an after-school special), and when it’s not (as with a surprise relationship between two parents) it sounds a slightly false note. But the poignant final chapter, a flash forward to 1987, pulls the book together, allowing Blume to draw out the after effects of the unlikely events that have shaped her characters’ lives.

In The Unlikely Event makes a great beach read and, were it not for the three plane crashes, might be the kind of book you’d pick up at the airport. It’s difficult to return to things you loved as a teenager and find they don’t hold up. Luckily, the new Judy Blume is a diverting trip down memory lane, where clunky exposition and cheesy dialogue are all forgiven. Nostalgia’s a powerful thing.