Our June 17, 2025 Book Club group discussed “In the Unlikely Event” by Judy Blume. When the main character, Miri, was fifteen and in love for the first time with Mason, a succession of airplanes fell from the sky, leaving a community reeling. In a period of 58 days, three airplanes crashed for separate reasons from Newark NJ airport during the terrible winter of l951 and l952.
Against this backdrop of actual events that Blume experienced in the early 1950s, when airline travel was new and exciting and everyone dreamed of going somewhere, Judy Blume imagines and weaves together a haunting story of three generations of families, friends, and strangers, whose lives are profoundly changed by these disasters. She paints a vivid portrait of a particular time and place — Nat King Cole singing “Unforgettable,” Elizabeth Taylor haircuts, young (and not-so-young) love, explosive friendships, A-bomb hysteria, maybe UFO connection, and rumors of Communist threat.
And a young journalist who makes his name reporting tragedy. Through it all, one generation reminds another that life goes on. The book fast-forwards after Miri and Mason split. It’s thirty-five years later and most of the citizens of Elizabeth who lived there during those three months when three separate
planes went down return to the town to attend a memorial ceremony. The book wraps up their lives and gave us plenty of topics to discuss. Some of us admitted we drew a chart to keep track of all the characters, but this book has everything.
Join us at the Book Club in July when we discuss “Lost” by Jacqueline Davies. Our August selection is “A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott.
