Blue Marlin by Lee Smith

 "I saw myself as an island with time stretching out before me and behind me, all around me like a deep lake, mysterious and never-ending, like Lake Nantahala, where I lost my ring, where a person might lose anything. This precarious view made everything that happened to me seem very, very important. I had to see as much as I could see, learn as much as I could learn, feel as much as I could feel. I had to live like crazy all the time, an attitude that would get me into lots of trouble later."    -Jenny, from the novel

Our Page Turners' September selection, Blue Marlin is the story of a feisty 13-year-old girl trying to cope with her father's infidelity and her mother's depression. I found Jenny to be very likeable and believable as a teenager with the usual growing pains with added on family dysfunction. I was cheering her on as I often do with youngsters in fiction, probably a result of having taught those of a similar age.

One of my favorite parts is when the family tries a "geographical cure," a trip from their home in Virginia to Key West. Some Florida landmarks along the way were very familiar to me and I enjoyed visiting Key West again vicariously. The 1959 time setting brought back memories to this baby-boomer with mentions of current events and popular culture of the time, like movies, songs and celebrities.

I also liked the last portion of the novella in which the author tells how her own youth was the inspiration for the story. She calls it "autobiographical fiction, with the emphasis on fiction."

I am rating Blue Marlin a 5. I'd definitely recommend it for middle schoolers and above...and/or former schoolteachers!

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The Page Turners' rating was 4 and the discussion was very interesting. With no men at the meeting, we could all relate to the story in some ways. We had all been 13-year-old girls---long ago! Now I want to see "Operation Petticoat," a movie that was significant to the ending.