The Summer of Naked Swim Parties

by Jessica Anya Blau

Book Overview

"This book will make you laugh and cry in public." --Larry Doyle, author of I Love You, Beth Cooper

Jessica Anya Blau's passionate and poignant debut novel of one girl's coming of age in 1970s southern California, replete with stoners, hippies, surfers, bitchy girlfriends, first love, first heartbreak, and OPI shorts

Jamie Green will remember "the summer of naked swim parties"...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061452025
• ISBN13: 9780061452024
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Funny, Smart, Deep

This novel by Jessica Blau is a funny and witty coming of age story set in California in the bicentennial year of 1976. Aside from the fascinating and touching story it tells of a teen-ager's coming to find and appreciate herself and her unconventional family, it is also a powerful evocation of a particular period in American cultural life. It does for the 70s what The Graduate (the novel and the movie) did for the 60s and does it just as memorably and with scenes that are funnier. Few books I have read in recent years have registered themselves on my consciousness with such filmic intensity. I can't imagine that this book won't become a great movie. I can recommend this novel enthusiastically to anyone who grew up in or was an adult witness to the decade of the 70s.But I'll bet it will also find passionate fans among the current generation of teen-agers who will surely identify strongly with the novel's teen-age heroine.

You MUST put this novel on your summer reading list!

Prepare yourself for flashbacks, a few belly laughs and some very uncomfortable (but familiar) moments. Blau has created a nearly perfect summer novel. I felt like I was an invisible woman staked out on a stool in the family's kitchen. By the end of the story, each character was vivid and very real. I did not want to let them go! Splurge and buy two copies because you are going to feel compelled to share this one.

I Can "Totally" Relate!

I grew up in the 70's in Southern California. Reading this book brought back my teen years in a way that I had forgotten or at least not considered in a long time. Blau writes with poignancy and insight as she navigates Jamie's sexual awakening and her dealings with her "enlightened" parents who are still children themselves in so many ways. Blau has a way with dialogue. She captures an era that few have written about. This is a story that can be read in a couple of days by adults or teens. I bought this book for my two boys (16 & 18) so they could understand my generation and a little about the world of the 70's. There is an innocence to this story that reflects a period in history when urgency was dictated by bad waves, a poor tan and a fight with best girlfriends. A great read! Recommended Highly!

So smart and funny...

There's a way in which books and characters lodge themselves in our brains. The narrator of this book, Jamie, sticks with you long after you put the book down. Even though she lives in southern California, anyone who grew up in the 70's will recognize the overzealous and hysterical search for meaning through things like dope smoking, family therapy and encounters with ponderous, mystical, Native Americans. The book is a total hoot!

A STORY FOR ALL AGES

This book has appeal to all age groups. Teens will love it , almost adults will identify with it and adults and seniors will laugh until they cry and feel the pain of the remembrance of a time past. You will adore being part of the process that a young girl goes through to find her true person and her own set of values to live by. But best of all you will be happy that the message that family is everything and always there in the end is so brilliantly expressed by the author....Today this cannot be said too often.,.This book is a must READ!!!!!