Book Review: "Grown Ups" by Emma Jane Unsworth
“Grown Ups” by Emma Jane Unsworth
Synopsis: Jenny McLaine's life is falling apart. Her friendships are flagging. Her body has failed her. She's just lost her column at The Foof because she isn't the fierce voice new feminism needs. Her ex has gotten together with another woman. And worst of all: Jenny's mother is about to move in. Having left home at eighteen to remake herself as a self-sufficient millennial, Jenny is now in her thirties and nothing is as she thought it would be. Least of all adulthood.
Told in live-wire prose, texts, emails, script dialogue, and social media messages, Grown Ups is a neurotic dramedy of 21st-century manners for the digital age. It reckons with what it means to exist in a woman's body: to sing and dance and work and mother and sparkle and equalize and not complain and be beautiful and love your imperfections and stay strong and show your vulnerability and bake and box...
But, despite our impossible expectations of women, Emma Jane Unsworth never lets Jenny off the hook. Jenny's life is falling apart at her own hands and whether or not she has help from her mother or her friends, Jenny is the only one who will be able to pick up the pieces and learn how to, more or less, grow up. Or will she?
Rating (out of 5): 4.25
Review: Recently out of a long-term relationship, living with thankless Zoomer boarders in her home, ever-obsessed with social media validation, and hating her co-workers, Jenny is feeling trapped.
In an upset of life circumstances, her fortune-teller mother, an erstwhile soap actress, moves in with her. She mourns the end of her relationship with a sexy man-child photographer whose betrayals are really only beginning, and struggles along in a job she finds asinine. Her closest friends, both interestingly and intensely drawn characters, become pawns in her anxious machinations, while she ignores the realities of their lives.
Jenny’s hyperfocus on Instagram engagement is relatable, if extreme. Her carefully curated feed is hiding the behind-the-scenes mess, and her fascination with gaining the attention of influencers has her ignoring the people she knows who love and care about her.
The balance of Jenny’s narcissism and self-awareness is difficult, but Unsworth nails this. As Jenny callously abuses her friendships, we understand who her first example of this behavior was, and how great her anxiety is that she can’t see past the tip of her own nose. While she’s frustrating and self-absorbed, she’s brilliant, pithy, and far more worthy than she thinks. I loved every second of this book.
TL;DR: A laugh out loud novel that manages to tear at your heartstrings without being maudlin. Jenny reminded me a lot of Maria Semple’s hilarious, self-absorbed, too smart for their own good heroines.
If you liked this; try:
“Bridget Jones’ Diary” by Helen Fielding (Bookshop | Kindle)
“Today Will Be Different” by Maria Semple (Bookshop | Kindle)
“Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine” by Gail Honeyman (Bookshop | Kindle)
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