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    In Zanesville
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    In Zanesville
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    In Zanesville
    Audiobook8 hours

    In Zanesville

    Written by Jo Ann Beard

    Narrated by Jo Anna Perrin

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The fourteen-year-old narrator of In Zanesville is a late bloomer; a sidekick, a marching band dropout, a disastrous babysitter, the kind of girl whose Eureka moment is the discovery that 'fudge' can't be said with an English accent. Luckily, she has a best friend with whom she shares the everyday adventures of a 1970s American girlhood. In time, their friendship is tested - by their families' claims on them, by a clique of popular girls who stumble upon them, and by the first, startling, subversive intimations of womanhood. With dry wit and piercing observation, Jo Ann Beard shows us that in the seemingly quiet streets of America's innumerable Zanesvilles is a world of wonders, and that within the souls of the overlooked often burns something radiant.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media Audio
    Release dateApr 25, 2011
    ISBN9781611200638
    Unavailable
    In Zanesville
    Author

    Jo Ann Beard

    Jo Ann Beard is the author of a collection of autobiographically essays, The Boys of My Youth. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Tin House, Best American Essays, and other magazines and anthologies. She received a Whiting Foundation Award and nonfiction fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation for the Arts.

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    Reviews for In Zanesville

    4/5

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    • 3/5
      Beard paints a picture with her words, I could feel myself in the story and in the mind of the 14 year old protagonist. The begining of the book is engaging and funny. It propells the reader into the world of two best friends navigating their way through the months before and during ther first year of high school. The middle drags a bit and it feels like the plot is lost unitl it returns towards the end.
    • 2/5
      Light on plot, this novel's strength is the way that it portrays the intersection between childhood and adulthood. The narrator grapples with issues of identity and friendship and romantic relationships and and depression and then comes home and climbs under the dining room table fort to play with her little brother. I find that I'm at a stage in my life that I read this (or rather, listened to it, since I had the audiobook) more from the perspective of a parent than as a former fourteen-year-old. I'm sure part of this is self-defense since I make it a point to not think in any detail about the time when I was between ages eleven and seventeen, but mostly it's just because I am the mother of an eleven-year-old now and can relate to the confusion and frustration that the narrator's mother feels. I can see her trying her best to figure out how to deal with an unpredictable daughter on the cusp of adulthood while also dealing with her job and her marriage and household responsibilities.The novel was also a rather fun look back at the parenting styles of the mid-1970's. I assume it's mid-70's...there's some overlap between the TV shows in the book---"Scooby-Doo," "Romper Room," "Captain Kangaroo"---and those I watched in my early childhood in the late 70's and early 80's, but there was also an awareness of earlier programs, like "Gidget," "Lassie," and "The Patty Duke Show." Even without pinpointing the year, it's amusing to look back at the chain-smoking, casual drinking-and-driving parenting style. I mean, her mom drops her daughter off for a sleepover at the home of a friend the mother's never met, and she drives away without talking to the adult in charge to make sure there are no loaded firearms or BPAs in the house. And she lets her teenager walk home from school alone and isn't arrested for it. How quaint.But while this novel was a source of nostalgia, it didn't really capture my attention as a novel. There was little direction or real plot to pull me along. I did like it enough to finish it, though, so there's that.
    • 4/5
      My first run in with Jo Ann Beard was enjoyable. It was like taking a cruise down the old streets and reminiscing a summer of my life. In Zanesville is set in a place I've never been, during a time before I was even born, but Beard's ability to get in the mind of these fourteen year olds was so familiar. With an uncanny ability to recall those years most of us have pushed from our memory, Beard nails not only the actions, but the irrational thoughts of these young teenagers. Beard successfully uses the language and imagery that would come to the mind of a 14 year old during the 70s. The dialogue is fun and excellently crafted.

      While some harder issues are addressed--alcoholism and death, primarily--In Zanesville is an tale of nostalgia throughout. Even for those who didn't live through the period, there is a familiarity which should resonate with nearly any person born in the US since the 1950s, and likely others, as well.

      As a side note, I found it interesting how often this book mentioned Shakepeare's The Tempest. The second book in a row I've read which drew considerable influence to Shakepeare's final play. I didn't realize this when I picked it up, but I considered it some sort of divine intervention. Perhaps I will find a copy of The Tempest soon.
    • 3/5
      A coming of age novel that is hard to place in terms of timeline as portions of it remind me much of my own pre-teen and early teen years in the mid-sixties, while certain allusions simply seemed out of sync with those times. Not certain that I really liked it, but it was engaging enough that I did keep reading to finish the book - I don't recall being quite so invested in every nuance of every action that took place in an around me, but it was a long time ago so perhaps I was more self-involved than I think I was.
    • 5/5
      Alternately funny and horrifying - much like real life. Told through the voice of a 14 year old girl we learn about life in Zanseville, aka Insanesville". Alcholic father, bossy older sister, stressed out mom, and all the confusion of who we are in ninth grade. Alex Award winner!
    • 4/5
      I have mixed feelings about this book. It was published as adult fiction and is a coming of age story, but is in some ways more YA fiction. It is set in the 1970's, and the period detail will appeal to adults. However, some of the teenage angst can become tiresome. Most of it was enjoyable reading, but it seemed to lose focus near the end. Nothing is resolved in the unnamed narrator's dysfunctional family and we're not sure if the narrator's actions at the end of the story mirror her father's answer to stress or are just related to the experimentation of adolescence. Recommended for those who remember growing up in the '70's.
    • 5/5
      To be honest, I have no recollection of where I heard about this book or why I decided to read it -- but I am glad I did. It is a story of teenage angst, of a girl and her childhood best friend trying to navigate the surreal landscape of adolescence. From babysitting together for a strange family (and being fired after their pyro-maniac son sets fire to the house), to spending the night together (sort of still under parental supervision, but with a perceived sense of freedom in the family camper), to dealing with the faults of her parents, to popularity and boys and clothes and siblings and appearances -- Beard brings it all back to life. Beard must have been taking notes during this period of her own life, because I don't think I could recreate all of these emotions and layers of complexity that a teenager feels her life is all about. I must say that in many parts, I more identified with the "best friend" (Flea), but I did get some great insight into "Jo", who I never understood before. The feeling of something being different after a somewhat non-event (in Flea's eyes, anyway), and no one is quite able to put their finger on what that thing was, and how that thing was irreversible with apologies or promises or even actions -- I soooo remember that. I just could never have captured the experience the way Beard does. As another reviewer noted, In Zanesville will return you to the teenage feelings of general discomfort, horror and humor. Fantastic. A favorite sentence that resonated for me? "I'd like to be the kind of person who can do something weird and not become weird because of it, but that's out of reach for me -- I am what I do at this point, and if I do this I'm done for." Another reviewer complained that a fourteen year old would never be this articulate, but I don't feel like she REALLY had this great insight consciously; it was almost a subconscious, or even "adult" Jo telling the story. Read it!
    • 3/5
      A witty tale of an average American teenager in a dysfunctional family. If you were a teen in the 1970's you can definitely relate to INZANESVILLE. The main character a 14 year old teenager girl is also the narrator and remains annonymous throughout the book. Despite her dysfunctional family which includes her chain smoking mother and her non-working alcoholic father, the narator seeems to emotionally lead a rather normal teenage life. Follow her and laugh as I did as she leads you through her life at home, through school, as she hangs out with her best friend Felicia and a few others, all with silly nicknames. Reminise in her feelings as she begins to notice boys and experience those first tingling sensations all over again. I love the character of the narrator simply for the reason that she is just like the average teenager, not overly attractive yet not plain, but just in between. She struggles with the friendship of her best friend Flea while also trying to fit into a group of teens that have found her interesting either because her differences seem to intrigue them or they are bored of themselves. I found a lot of familiarity including the fiasco when the narrator purposely acquires detention in order to introduce herself to a said boy, who she later awkwardly dumps when he gets a little frisky. Beard really makes these characters come to life on her pages and you can relate to these teenage antics whatever your age. The close teenage friendship, the feelings of abandonment by her friend, her relationship with her siblings and even her parents can be anyones real life. I feel Beards intention with this story is to pull the reader back to that particular time in their life, those teenage years, to make that connection. The true realization I recognized INZANESVILLE to hold is that real true friendships are more important than school cliques or boys.
    • 4/5
      Very conflicted about this one. It presents itself as an "adult" book but isn't: I kept waiting for that moment when the narrator would step out of her teen self and view her adolescent travails from the perspective of her mature self. That moment never came. As a YA novel this works well and I commend the author for (not-too-subtly) working Shakespeare, surrealism and classic YA lit into the narrative, but otherwise......?
    • 5/5
      "Inzanesville" is a steady walk through the mire and joys of insanity called adolescence while trying to navigate the delicate, treacherous landmines of a dysfunctional family. Insanesville is shortly recognized as a euphemism of Inzanesville and we are abruptly drawn into the place and time of what we understand is going to be a gripping story.Jo Ann Beard is an earthy writer. She is a writer who doesn't mince words and who doesn't use flowery language. She's an author of grass roots. When she writes, she not only tells us, she shows us with clear words and descriptions we can remember and see from our own lives. This is a skill so rare in fiction today, it's a pleasure to experience.She had me laughing through my tears. This timeless use of humor to cover pain is always piercing and effective. Her prose is tight, as I mentioned, and she doesn't mince words to get across the message she has for us. There's no time wasted in gift wrap, but Ms Beard gives us her story in straight talk that magnifies its impact and humor. It's an unfliching tale, one of angst and emotional suffering...life and circumstances inflicting pain and epiphanies that are the essence of growing up.I asked myself how such a book could be both enjoyable to read and hold such childhood nightmares at the same time. I could only come up with this: A writer of remarkable courage and gifts could only have written this through personal experience.Ms Beard's protagonist, aptly named Jo" after one of the "Little Women," but not the one who was her favorite--Amy, is wise beyond her years. As the narrator of her own story, Jo brings us along with her in a journey that leads her into an awakening and a growing up that she needs to do....her mother having told her she needs to get beyond being a "late bloomer." What seems sad is that she finally attains this wisdom, and then seems to give up what's won in what I felt a sort of acceptance of the inevitable. I'm walking a tighrope here, being somewhat vague because this is a book that must be read to be grasped in its impact, which is crushing and lasting. Along the difficult road she treads, Jo finds lasting friendship and its meaning, her personal "calling," and a way to work out her emotional struggles and world-view through art. She begins to understand her parents and the family dynamics, and that she has choices within it. And, sadly, the scales of childish things fall from her eyes."Inzanesville" is a book that will touch your heart, make you laugh heartily; one that will stop you dead in your tracks and open your eyes. It will recall to you your own junior high years, absolutely. And, if you happen to be one of those unfortunate children who have had to tread (perhaps still tread) the inelegant, ugly and treacherous waters of a dysfunctional family, it will give you something to think about. I was particularly impacted by Jo's constant worries nearly every day that her father was planning and attempting suicide.This book will undoubtedly rank in my Top Ten Favorite Books of 2011. Despite its blend of the tragic with the hilarious, ultimately, it is downright fabulous reading! Jo Ann Beard is a truth-teller, and a court jester of a word spinner tossing up jolts of humor catching us off guard, then, as the illusion of laughter begins to crumble, leaving us with a sinking feeling of contemplation and a sense of her protagonist and the family's anxieties. She is enchanting and brilliant with an uncanning frankness that's irresistible to readers.I must add that Little, Brown and Co., does a tremendous job of chosing and publishing outstanding authors and books. I am a fan of independent authors and their books, as well. However, the caliber of author Hachette Publishing has been chosing is, bar none, excellent. It's almost a given that books published by this historic and traditional publishing house are of the finest quality.Do yourself a favor this year and read "Inzanesville" by Jo Ann Beard. It is fabulous!*I was provided an Arc by Little, Brown, however I received no compensation nor am I required to write any reviews or comments not of my own personal view. All of my views are honest and are my own.
    • 5/5
      I loved it all. Like Richard Peck but deeper and note satisfying to a grown up (or teenage) reader
    • 3/5
      This book was well-written and the characters well-observed, but I wanted...something more to happen? Also, I get twitchy and uncomfortable when I read about friendships falling apart, but YMMV.
    • 5/5
      Welcome to the definitive trip inside the mind of a unnamed ninth grade girl. Everything thought and feeling here is both universal and unique. She lives in Zanesville, a dying industrial town. She luckily has a best friend, Flea - the type that instantly understands you, the one that your mother yells, "Is she sleeping over AGAIN?" She gets your alcoholic father and angry mother. She co-babysits the six kids of biker parents with you and is also too freaked out to call the Fire Department when one of the kids tries to burn down the house.Then things change when a cheerleader overhears you and your friend talking in the bathroom at school and decides that you're both funny. And there are boys and an art teacher that introduces you to surrealism.Maybe men won't, can't get this, but every woman should. Ninth grade girls probably won't read it until their cut glass memories of the pain and the flying heartbeats fade. But it's never too late to sink In Zanesville, one of the best coming-of-age novels ever.
    • 4/5
      It was a fine story. But I never felt like I really connected with the narrator. I’m slightly bothered that I can’t even remember her name, and I don’t know if it’s because I have forgotten or because we never learn it in the book.
    • 4/5
      We can’t believe the house is on fire. It’s so embarrassing first of all, and so dangerous second of all. Also, we’re supposed to be in charge here, so there’s a sense of somebody not doing their job.Some books are written for children and adolescent readers, some are written about childhood and adolescence for adult readers. The first sentences (above) from the unnamed narrator who’s babysitting six kids with her best friend -- her self-deprecation and obviously mis-ordered priorities; her use of “tableau” and “sibilance” a few pages later -- predict a story about adolescence, circa 1970 but influenced by a wiser, reminiscing adult.And I think that’s what Beard intended in this coming-of-age story about a girl’s summer before 9th grade. It's full of friendship and small-town (“insanesville”) period detail, and woven with a riveting family subplot full of tension and high stakes. And in Beard’s writing, there is so much good here. But at about the halfway point, the family subplot fades and the story becomes superficial YA, where everyday adolescent problems wreak melodramatic fallout and culminate in a quick, unearned ending.(Review based on an advance reading copy provided by the publisher.)