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melannrosenthal 's review for:
Grown Ups
by Emma Jane Unsworth
Usually I can’t help but pull titles from my head while I read, trying to comp a novel in real time. But it was not so with Grown Ups. The realism is such that this novel is very much an imitation of life, so easily accessible and so hard to put down.
“Are you sitting comfortably? I’ll begin anyway.”
Notably Jenny, our main character, is just like all of us. She understands that there should be a balance between existing on the Internet and living in real life, and she does that by installing apps on her phone that remind her to take breaks, to “incorporate mindfulness” into her day. This comes just before she logs back into social media in order to overthink her most recent posts which is performing direly with only 35 likes. There’s only so much time for deep breathing when one has to protect one’s digital presence & brand! (“I’ve sacrificed entire emotional half days before now to online altercations.... Digital is not at odds with the flesh, as some might argue; this is all has a very physical effect on me.”)
The present is chopped up for vignette breaks painting singular scenes of Jenny’s past: how she met her longtime boyfriend Art (the artist), what led to the semi-estrangement with her mother, why her father isn’t in the picture, using texts and emails alongside Jenny’s running dialogue to better describe her neuroses. The long and short of it is that Jenny is a mess. She’s spending far too much time smoothing out herself for the life she presents as hers online and in so doing alienates her best friend and nearly loses her job. She is not handling he breakup with Art well at all, well, she’s not acknowledging it much at all. That is, until she becomes incensed when she realizes that he has moved on without her. The discovery breaks something open inside of her and though she’s not about to give up on her internet/technology addiction, she might just be ready to start acting more like the 35-year-old woman she is. Jenny will need help though. Accepting that her online persona or following won’t help her as much as her friends and mother will be the final hurdle. Can she make herself vulnerable enough though?
“Are you sitting comfortably? I’ll begin anyway.”
Notably Jenny, our main character, is just like all of us. She understands that there should be a balance between existing on the Internet and living in real life, and she does that by installing apps on her phone that remind her to take breaks, to “incorporate mindfulness” into her day. This comes just before she logs back into social media in order to overthink her most recent posts which is performing direly with only 35 likes. There’s only so much time for deep breathing when one has to protect one’s digital presence & brand! (“I’ve sacrificed entire emotional half days before now to online altercations.... Digital is not at odds with the flesh, as some might argue; this is all has a very physical effect on me.”)
The present is chopped up for vignette breaks painting singular scenes of Jenny’s past: how she met her longtime boyfriend Art (the artist), what led to the semi-estrangement with her mother, why her father isn’t in the picture, using texts and emails alongside Jenny’s running dialogue to better describe her neuroses. The long and short of it is that Jenny is a mess. She’s spending far too much time smoothing out herself for the life she presents as hers online and in so doing alienates her best friend and nearly loses her job. She is not handling he breakup with Art well at all, well, she’s not acknowledging it much at all. That is, until she becomes incensed when she realizes that he has moved on without her. The discovery breaks something open inside of her and though she’s not about to give up on her internet/technology addiction, she might just be ready to start acting more like the 35-year-old woman she is. Jenny will need help though. Accepting that her online persona or following won’t help her as much as her friends and mother will be the final hurdle. Can she make herself vulnerable enough though?