Judy Blume: A Life <\/p>\n
Author: Mark Oppenheimer<\/p>\n
ISBN-13: 9781915590558<\/p>\n
Publisher: Scribe <\/p>\n
Guideline Price: \u00a325<\/p>\n
In his comprehensive and quirky biography, Judy Blume: A Life, Mark Oppenheimer picks up on a journalistic tendency to describe Blume as \u201cgirlish\u201d, suggesting it as a reflection of a critical establishment prone to undermining Blume\u2019s seriousness as a writer. <\/p>\n
Oppenheimer\u2019s struggle with this depiction points to the heart of his study: the provocative idea of girlhood, and childhood in general, as subjects worthy of literary and critical consideration.<\/p>\n
Blume, whom Oppenheimer traces from her middle-class Jewish upbringing in the 1940s through three marriages, motherhood and the development of her astonishing literary career \u2013 she has sold more than 90 million books \u2013 emerges as brilliantly \u201cgirlish\u201d. She is thrilled by reinvention and performance, hyperattuned to interpersonal dynamics, ambitious as well as people-pleasing. All qualities that inform her best work. <\/p>\n
Drawing on conversations with Blume and her peers, the most vivid sections of this biography concern Blume\u2019s early years. Hers is a personality shaped by the era\u2019s gendered constraints but also an intense, liberated curiosity. Blume was never afraid or ashamed of puberty or sexuality. This openness is integral to classics such as Are You There God? It\u2019s Me, Margaret, which, Oppenheimer writes, \u201ctakes seriously the … development of an adolescent girl\u201d. It was as radical as it was readable.<\/p>\n
In a way that recalls Annie Ernaux\u2019s The Years, the intensity of Blume\u2019s early life fades into the stagnation of marriage and motherhood. <\/p>\n
Her writing, initially inspired by Dr Seuss, became a lifeline. It was a slow process. Judy Blume: A Life is a fascinating insight into the business of writing. It also presents the discovery of a literary voice as a psychological rebirth. Oppenheimer deftly unpicks the exchange between Blume\u2019s life and her books: her fiction drew on experience, but her fiction also pushed her towards real-world changes. <\/p>\n
Oppenheimer\u2019s style is refreshingly unpretentious: a homage to his subject. It is also tinged with a nostalgia that feels occasionally twee, but also honest. A longing to bridge the gap between subject and author is palpable: testament to the impossible aspirations of biography, and to Oppenheimer\u2019s reality. He and Blume were friends. Over the writing of this biography, that friendship cooled. <\/p>\n
This work will fascinate the Blume aficionado and compel the uninitiated to quickly join the ranks.<\/p>\n
Maya Kulukundis is a writer based in Dublin. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Judy Blume: A Life Author: Mark Oppenheimer ISBN-13: 9781915590558 Publisher: Scribe Guideline Price: \u00a325 In his comprehensive and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6489,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-509073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-book-reviews","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}