In The Unlikely Event

In The Unlikely Event by Judy Blume, 402 pages

This is told from several different points of view, but the main focus is Miri, a 15 year old girl in Elizabeth, NJ, in 1952.  That year there were three plane crashes, resulting in many deaths, both people on board and people in town.  People in town are demanding that the nearby Newark airport be closed, believing that would end the tragedies.  Miri isn’t sure how to process all of the tumult around her, not just the aftermath from the crashes, which has affected her friends and family, some very deeply, but also the normal upheaval that comes with growing up and other changes within her family.  The very beginning and ending of the story are set in the 1980s, so the readers get a glimpse into the characters’ later lives also.  Although the story is fictional, the plane crashes were real and had about the same effect on the community as what is portrayed in the story.  I really liked this book.  I’ve always liked Blume’s writing and if anything, I think she’s gotten better with age.