Here's a book that might only appeal to a certain cross-section of EDIWTB readers – those in their late 30s with complicated feelings about high school. I have to say, I am dying to read it.
It's called Don't You Forget About Me by Jancee Dunn. Here's the Amazon description:
At thirty-eight, Lillian Curtis is content with her life. She enjoys her routine as a producer for a talk show in New York City starring showbiz veteran Vi (“short for vibrant”) Barbour, a spirited senior. Lillian’s relationship with her husband is pleasant if no longer exciting. Most nights she is more than happy to come home to her apartment and crawl into her pajamas. Then she’s hit with a piece of shocking news: Her husband wants a divorce.
Blindsided, Lillian takes a leave of absence and moves back to her parents’ home in suburban New Jersey. Nestled in her childhood bedroom, where Duran Duran and Squeeze posters still cover the walls, she finds high school memories a healing salve to her troubles. She hurtles backward into her teen years, driving too fast, digging up mix tapes, and tentatively reconciling with Dawn, a childhood friend she once betrayed. Punctuating her stroll down memory lane is an invitation to the Bethel Memorial High School class of 1988 twenty-year reunion. It just might be Lillian’s chance to reconnect with her long-lost boyfriend, Christian Somers, who is expected to attend. Will it be just like heaven?
Lillian discovers, as we all must, the pitfalls of glorifying the glory days, the mortification of failing as a thirtysomething adult, and the impossibility of fully recapturing the past. Don’t You Forget About Me is for anyone who looks back and wonders: What if?
Here is a positive review from the L.A. Times.
While looking for reviews of Don't You Forget About Me I came across this amazing site: Cassette From My Ex. It's a blog about old mix tapes made by exes, with posts written by the recipient of old mixes about the significance of the tape and the relationship. There's also a corresponding audioo playlist for each one. So cool! I want to go dig up my old mixes (god, I had so many) and submit them to the site. Jancee Dunn's is the most recent entry, about a tape she one received titled "Hey Babe".
Has anyone out there read this? Jill from Breaking the Spine – did you end up reading this on vacation?
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