In Zanesville, Jo Ann Beard
In Zanesville, Jo Ann Beard
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In Zanesville
A Novel

Author: Jo Ann Beard

Narrator: Jo Ann Beard

Unabridged: 9 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/28/2018


Synopsis

From the acclaimed author of The Boys of My Youth, a “mesmerizing… beautifully written” debut novel that evokes the wrenching, exquisite moment just before we step into adulthood (Ann Patchett, Pulitzer-Prize finalist)

The beguiling fourteen-year-old narrator of In Zanesville is a late bloomer. She is used to flying under the radar-a sidekick, a third wheel, 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, a similarly undiscovered girl with whom she shares the everyday adventures of a 1970s American girlhood, incidents through which a world is revealed, and character is forged.

In time, their friendship is tested—by their families' claims on them, by a clique of popular girls who stumble upon them as if they were found objects, 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 awkward and the overlooked often burns something radiant and unforgettable.

About 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.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Persephone on January 18, 2013

One of my Facebook pals is a school librarian, so her postings are pithier than some I could mention, that is, she doesn't share glorified chain letters, urban legends masquerading as real events, nor quotes attributed to the wrong people. A couple of months ago, she posted a link to a Publishers' W......more

Goodreads review by Jenn on September 04, 2014

I'll say this about that. Beautiful dysfunction. Reminded me of Lynda Barry. I loved it.......more

Goodreads review by Lucy on October 28, 2018

I love this novel with my whole heart and teach it in class every chance I get. Beard is a master of tension, of language, of weirdness, of getting to the heart of what really matters to humans. I come back to this novel again and again for inspiration in my own writing. It's not just a book about g......more

Goodreads review by Peacegal on May 03, 2018

I can understand why someone may not like this book, as it was more scenes in a life of a young teenager in the 1970s than a traditional novel, but I for one enjoyed it very much. Though cultural touchstones firmly establish a time and date, this book could have taken place at any point before the In......more

Goodreads review by Amy on July 14, 2011

Jo Ann Beard writes beautifuly and her observations about family dynamics and being a teenager are impeccable. In Zanesville: A Novel is a must read for a few of the lines alone. She describes the oldest son (and terror) of her last babysitting job as follows: "We've always thought of Derek as a lar......more


Quotes

"Masterfully wrought...downright hilarious and often hold-your-breath-and-hope-for-the-best suspenseful. The restraint with which Beard deploys moments of tension and humor make each page glimmer."—Samuel Reaves Slaton, O Magazine

"A fierce, funny, brave, and bracingly honest new novel....Every bit as poignant and powerful as The Catcher in the Rye."—Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune

"An exuberant first novel....Beard has a knack for melding the funny and the sad, amplifying small moments into something big."—Susannah Meadows, New York Times

"Epic and profound. These thoughtful, funny, awestruck, slightly peculiar girls are so endearing, so painfully true."—Karen Valby, Entertainment Weekly

"A sure-handed first novel ....It's impossible not to be charmed."—Yvonne Zipp, Washington Post

"A fresh comic voice and a talent for sharp familiarizing place-details."—Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal