by Jessica Anya Blau

“… I hadn’t understood that people you loved could do things you didn’t love. And, still, you could keep loving them.”

Imagine the most reserved, squarest, whitest, most buttoned up, and buttoned down family you can and multiply by 3. At least 3. Let’s say one multiplication for each member of the family. And, our heroine, 14-year-old Mary Jane is the product of how she was raised. She is no rebel. In fact, she is an old-fashioned girl even for the exclusive enclave in Baltimore in 1975. She loves music and sings in the choir but is only vaguely familiar with the more famous rock and roll groups of the day. She prefers Broadway show tunes. She is also intelligent, sweet, dutiful, and open-hearted. She is excited to have a summer job as a temporary Nanny to a local doctor’s little girl, 5-year-old Izzy. Her insular structured world is about to be blown to smithereens.

The Cone family is everything that Mary Jane’s parents are not (or not everything the Dillards are.) At home, Mary Jane and her family bow their heads in prayer before every home-cooked, planned-out, well-balanced meal.

“Thank you, Jesus, for this food on our table and for my wonderful wife and obedient child. God bless this family, God bless our relatives in Idaho, God bless President Ford and his family, and God bless the United States of America.”

Mrs. Cone doesn’t cook or clean. they go out to eat or order out. An old bumper sticker on the door says “IMPEACHMENT: Now more than ever.” Their home is chaotic, disorganized, and a mess. Even dangerous to a little 5-year-old. The Cones are free spirits and free with their emotions. They are Jewish but prefer Buddha to God. Having Maryanne exposed to a new way of living and thinking at the Cone’s bohemian household would have made a great premise for a coming-of-age story by itself. But Jessica Anya Blau ups the ante. The reason why the Cones need a Nanny this particular summer is because Dr. Cone, a psychiatrist specializing in addiction, has cleared his schedule so he can treat and house his latest patient, a famous rock and roll star, Jimmy Bendiger, and Mrs. Cone, Bonnie, will be entertaining his equally famous and beloved movie star wife, Sheba.

As Mary Jane becomes more and more entwined with the Bohemian Cones, Jimmy, and Sheba, she comes to love them as they come to love, rely and depend upon her as she whips their household into shape and cooks them nutritious and delicious meals just as her mother taught her. She gives little Izzy stability and makes learning fun. And she starts to see her family in a different light. It starts to dawn on her that her parents have racist attitudes, are close-minded, and have questionable priorities. Mary Anne’s adventures in her new world and her ruminations on her two families are mostly light-hearted and funny, though sometimes, of course, serious and thought-provoking. And all the while, she is able to keep the truth about the Cones and their famous guests from her parents. Then one fateful day she gets her picture in the paper visiting a record store in the wrong (black) neighborhood of Baltimore with the famous rock star and his famous wife. And it all comes out.

“EXPLAIN.” He banged a fist on the table and I jumped. I thought of Izzy Cone. How she’d probably never had even a second in her life when she felt afraid of her parents.

Why would the Cones be so careless as to let a known drug addict into their home with a little girl and you?’

Why is a heroine addict traipsing around town with you anyway?

Has this man deflowered you?

Why did you go to the record store with them? Why would they take you to that store?
“Because it’s the best record store in town.” My mother snorted. “I highly doubt that.” “It is. The people in that store know all about every kind of music. The owner loves Guys and Dolls, just like me. And there was a whole wall of classical music and opera.” “On North Avenue? No, dear. Don’t lie to me.” “I’m not lying, Mom.” I was almost embarrassed for her. Did she think Black people only listened to the Jackson 5?

And with that, Mary Jane’s relationship with the Cones is at an end. Or is it?

Although I believe most readers are meant to love the Cones and disapprove (at the very least) of the Dillards, the author makes it clear that neither family is all right or all wrong. One family is generous with hugs, kisses, “I love yous” and sincere, if extravagant praise. But Izzy, though loved, is not cared for. Their home is a disaster area and the refrigerator, until Mary Jane gets there, is full of spoiled inedible food. The other family never says I love you, but Mary Jane is protected, nurtured, nourished, cared for, and taught important things. Her mother invests her time in the home and in carefully and thoroughly teaching Mary Jane the very skills and values that the Cones and their guests depend on. They are why they admire her so and partly why they love and value her. Mrs. Dillard’s love for her daughter and the love of music that they both share lead to her nascent transformation by the end of the novel. Not so for Mrs. Cone.

A word about Church, which is an example of one of the reasons I so admired the author’s characterizations. It would have been so easy for the author to portray the church in general and Rowland Park Presbyterian that the Dillards attend in a negative light, another way in which poor Mary Jane is oppressed and indoctrinated. But Blau does not take the easy predictable path with any of her characters or this institution. Church is good. Sheba the movie star was raised in the church and appreciates it. Mary Jane is the star of her choir, and her mother plays guitar for the Sunday School. The choir director likes to throw a few modern tunes into his repertoire like from Jesus Christ Superstar and John Lennon’s Imagine (with the lyrics slightly changed, of course!) The Dillards dread going to church the Sunday after Mary Jane’s ignominy is blasted on the front page of the local paper. But the parishioners are only excited and impressed at her intimacy with such two mega-stars. Jimmy, Sheba, The Cones, Mrs. Dillard are all complex with hidden depths both positive and negative. Even Mr. Dillard doesn’t always do what you would expect from the villain of the piece if there is a villain.

Mary Jane has gone through a summer like no other. And she will emerge with her horizons expanded and her future at her feet. She will take the best from both worlds and turn her back on the worst.