Mary Jane: A Novel

"The title stands for protagonist Mary Jane Dillard, but anyone who remembers the 1970s – during which which Blau’s latest book is set – will get the double entendre, even if Mary Jane herself is fairly oblivious. Hired to babysit Isabelle “Izzy” Cone, whose parents Dr. and Mrs. Cone have an eccentric lifestyle, Mary Jane relishes the escape from her staid upper-class Baltimore neighborhood. When the Cones announce that rock star Jimmy Bendinger and his rock star girlfriend Sheba will be moving in for the summer, things get a little wild. But not too wild. Mary Jane provides exactly the right hit of the good (nostalgic) stuff."