Juniper Street by Joan Frank

Juniper Street by Joan Frank — a lovely novel by a detail-oriented writer. She mentions details in Late Work and I appreciate seeing her take on them in Juniper Street. The story is about two childhood friends Mary and the unnamed narrator and their lives in Sacramento. They go on great adventures together and explore — hitchhiking to San Francisco, attending the Roseville Auction — getting there by foot in the Central Valley heat are a few examples. Mary’s house is chaotic though the food is plentiful — a full house with four kids and parents overwhelmed. The narrator’s house is quieter, having lost her mother and relocated quickly. The story unfolds into their distanced adulthood– Mary reaching out 18 years later late at night — the narrator living in Hawaii, rightfully stunned by the call. The rest of the novel (spoiler alert) is about life after Mary dies a tragic death and how the narrator engages with this new reality– talking to old friends and Mary’s relatives, trying to find her new normal. I sat in the library this afternoon and gobbled up this book and feel satiated. If you can get your hands on it, I think you’ll very much enjoy this literary fiction.

I’m at over 1,000 pages in our Winter Reading session and have just picked up the Plath biography that Barbara reviewed. If I can get through it, I’ll be at nearly our goal. Wish me luck! 🙂 I have a few other things I will be reading along the way as well…