In the Unlikely Event - The Library of the Uncommons

401 pages

English language

Published Nov. 15, 2015 by Alfred A. Knopf.

ISBN:: 978-1-101-87504-9
OCLC Number:: 904528759

(2 reviews)

In 1987, Miri Ammerman returns to her hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey, to attend a commemoration of the worst year of her life. Thirty-five years earlier, when Miri was fifteen, and in love for the first time, a succession of airplanes fell from the sky, leaving a community reeling. Against this backdrop of actual events that Blume experienced in the early 1950s, when airline travel was new and exciting and everyone dreamed of going somewhere, she paints a vivid portrait of a particular time and place -- Nat King Cole singing "Unforgettable," Elizabeth Taylor haircuts, young (and not-so-young) love, explosive friendships, A-bomb hysteria, rumors of Communist threat. And a young journalist who makes his name reporting tragedy. Through it all, one generation reminds another that life goes on.

16 editions

memorysnow reviewed In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume

Review of 'In the Unlikely Event' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This book was great on so many levels. Drawing from [a:Judy Blume|12942|Judy Blume|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1430843076p2/12942.jpg]'s first-hand experience of the three rapid succession plane crashes that Elizabeth, New Jersey experienced in the early 1950s, the story is colored by prolonged tragedy and its impact on the community. I enjoyed the epistolary aspects of this novel--the newspaper blurbs at the beginning of each chapter provided color and detail, and the various points of view added depth to this story. While there are many moving parts, the true focus of this story is Miri, a girl who is about to graduate junior high in the midst of the town's plane crash chaos, experiencing her first love, struggling with her best friend, and encountering her estranged father for the first time. Blume has an amazing ability to capture life--from the day-to-day details to the thoughts, feelings, and dreams of ordinary folks--that make her books feel real …

This book was great on so many levels. Drawing from [a:Judy Blume|12942|Judy Blume|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1430843076p2/12942.jpg]'s first-hand experience of the three rapid succession plane crashes that Elizabeth, New Jersey experienced in the early 1950s, the story is colored by prolonged tragedy and its impact on the community. I enjoyed the epistolary aspects of this novel--the newspaper blurbs at the beginning of each chapter provided color and detail, and the various points of view added depth to this story. While there are many moving parts, the true focus of this story is Miri, a girl who is about to graduate junior high in the midst of the town's plane crash chaos, experiencing her first love, struggling with her best friend, and encountering her estranged father for the first time. Blume has an amazing ability to capture life--from the day-to-day details to the thoughts, feelings, and dreams of ordinary folks--that make her books feel real and fully relateable, and this book is no exception. As a reader, I felt as if I were a full-on member of Miri's family and was sad to see the saga end.

lovmelovmycats

rated it

March 22, 2020

Subjects

Grief
Family secrets
Homecoming
Nineteen fifties
Aircraft accidents
Fiction

Places

New Jersey
Elizabeth (N.J.)
Elizabeth
N.J. Elizabeth