YOUNG JANE YOUNG by Gabrielle Zevin

Young Jane Young is the second novel of American novellist Gabrielle Zevin. It is the story of five women entangled in the same political scandal.

The five women tell the story of a scandalous affair of Congressman Aaron Levin, married with children, with his young intern, Aviva Grossman. The story is, largely, ripped from the headlines and the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky affair. What this story seeks to do is tell the story through Aviva’s eyes, amongst others - also, her mother, the Congressman’s wife, Jane Young (a political aspirant in Maine) and Jane’s young daughter Ruby. Each has a different take on the affair and the impact on each is different.

The story looks at the slut-shaming of Aviva and the lack of accountability faced by the Congressman, both professionally and personally. This, too, reflects what happened to Monica Lewinsky and the novel asks really legitimate questions about why we punish the young woman and yet turn the other cheek, away from the men who abuse their power.

It also looks at the long term impact of the affair, particularly on the women - it tells a very political story that too often has been real. It’s not something I particularly understand, outside of the strength of the patriarchy in these spheres. The impact of politics on women remains disproportionate to that of the men who (still) run the world.

Last year I read Zevin’s third novel, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. I think the problem I have is that Tomorrow3 is one of the best novels I have read, and so this novel might always have been up against it when finding its way into my heart. It’s a good read, an easy one, but I suspect it wont be one that triggers the dopamine hit of joy that Tomorrow3 still does.

Nonetheless, this was a good novel to read and I think others will like it, too.