Synopses & Reviews
Fourteen-year-old Jamie will never forget the summer of 1976. It's the summer when she has her first boyfriend, cute surfer Flip Jenkins; it's the summer when her two best friends get serious about sex, cigarettes, and tanning; it's the summer when her parents throw, yes, naked swim parties, leaving Jamie flushed with embarrassment. And it's the summer that forever changes the way Jamie sees the things that matter: family, friendship, love, and herself.
Review:
"In this debut novel, Blau addresses the coming-of-age of a young girl as she navigates her way through the confusion of adolescence. Fourteen-year-old Jamie lives in Santa Barbara with her 16-year-old sister, Renee, and their parents, Allen and Betty, two swinging, pot-smoking, part-time nudists. It's 1976 and Jamie isn't altogether comfortable with her parents' lifestyle, while Renee turns to straighter neighbors for a surrogate family. Overly anxious Jamie ends up with Flip, the cutest surfer in town. Before long they have progressed way beyond kissing, and Allen and Betty's casual ways result in a disaster that turn the family into pariahs in their middle-class neighborhood. Blau understands the mating rituals of 1970s teens, and she reproduces their mindless chatter with ease. Unfortunately, not all of the characters are fully realized; the adults, generally treated more obliquely, give off no more than hints of character. It's obvious that their excessive hedonism will eventually cause tragedy, so the book does have a growing dread that blossoms in the third quarter, but the reader may be left with the impression that all this ground has been covered before. (June)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:
"Jamie may be untethered as she floats through
The Summer of Naked Swim Parties, but this reader found himself inexorably tied to her family, her story and the terrifying things that come bouncing her way. I promise you I won't be the only one."
OregonianSynopsis:
Blau presents this passionate and poignant debut novel of one girl's coming of age in 1970s Southern California, replete with stoners, hippies, surfers, and OP shorts.
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About the Author
Jessica Anya Blau is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and the Johns Hopkins University, where she received her master's degree. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland, where she teaches creative writing at Johns Hopkins.
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