entertain

Usually, if teenagers read books about their stage in life, it’s a YA novel. They aren’t too explicit or too angsty, and tend to have happy endings. But ironically, these books marketed to teenagers don’t actually reflect a very relatable adolescent experience. Adult fiction that deals with the teen years, however, can deliver a toe-curling, painful story about a fourteen year old’s summer, that although set in the 70s, seems more realistic than many YA chick-lit novels. The Summer of Naked Swim Parties is free to dwell on the uncomfortable territory of parental lifestyle, the awkwardness of junior high flirting, and truly terrible teenage sex.

Jamie is fourteen. Her mother likes to walk around topless, attracting the attention of neighbors that her father buys pot from. They host nude pool parties and think their children are prudes. Jamie, meanwhile, wishes her parents were more restrictive; she wants order in her rapidly changing life. She and her friends have begun to draw boys, even men, to them, even as they still deal with retainers and sleepovers with fashion shows.

But as the summer goes along, the thrill of being a perfect beach bunny girlfriend to an egotistical surfer boy three years her senior wears off. Her friends are falling more and more in love with the lifestyle, but Jamie steps slowly and clumsily into the world of sex, drugs and beach bonfires. This painful storyline is one of the most appealing things about this book. It shows what really happens when the hot senior falls for the lowly, sexually-confused freshman. There’s vomit and very boring encounters in RVs.

Jamie and her friends have gotten to that wonderful, scary time where suddenly college boys are hitting on them, their peers think their parents’ hippie habits of nudity and pot are cool, but essentially they’ve barely entered the teenage threshold. There is something transformative about that 14^th year. This novel captures this perfectly. Imagine the texture of underdone brownies, the dream of going to Disneyland with a boyfriend, the endless charade of gestures and rituals with your Best Friends.

The Summer of Naked Swim Parties doesn’t preach, and doesn’t simplify or sweeten the ridiculous tumble of being a young teenager. Everything from flaky friends  to lesbian-group-therapy experiences rings true. Kind of, anyway. Angst is universal, and this novel makes it entertaining.