Jo Ann Beard's Book "In Zanesville"

Another novel coming from Little, Brown & Co. is In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard. In a review by Martha Woodall, the reviewer mentions the story of two adolescent girls circa 1970 when babysitting was 75 cents an hour. To quote the reviewer:

In Zanesville turns out to be a brisk, rewarding journey through adolescence in the American heartland circa 1970 with the unnamed narrator and her best friend Felicia - "Flea" for short - as our guides.

"Being a teenager so far hasn't gotten me anything beyond period cramps and nameless yearning, which I had as kid, too, but this is a new kind of nameless yearning that has boys attached to it," 

The pair of girls navigates teenhood agonising about boys and the pains of growing up in the seventies.

"My mother's own bras are large quilted things that I used to think were funny. Now when I see them on the laundry table, one cup folded into the other, I have a sense of impending doom. It's like being on your way to the Alps and knowing that when you get there you'll have to wear lederhosen."

Much as I like American novels set in the sixties and seventies when Erich Segal's Love Story became a hit and John Updike made his appearance, I would love to get my hands on this novel, providence willing.