Book Review: ‘Judy Blume: A Life’ By Mark Oppenheimer

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Review by Lauryn Angel

The book is in stores now from Putnam. Click on the link to buy a copy. https://amzn.to/4sxcnUU

Mark Oppenheimer’s Judy Blume: A Life could easily have been titled “Everything you’ve always wanted to know about Judy Blume – and some things you didn’t know you wanted to know.” Oppenheimer had access not just to Blume herself and her friends and family, but also to decades-worth of Blume’s ephemera, a veritable and verifiable treasure trove of information.

Oppenheimer covers the first 86 years of Judy Blume’s life (she’s now 88), and even dips backwards a little to discuss her parents and how they met. Not surprisingly, stories from Blume’s childhood informed the stories she would later publish for children, including the story of a boy who swallowed a turtle. But it’s the stories of Blume’s later life that most people probably aren’t familiar with. As someone who pretty much grew up with Fudge and Margaret, I was surprised to learn about Blume’s first marriage and how it informed her first adult novel, Wifey – a book which I remember my mother reading and telling me it was not appropriate for me to read; to this day, I still haven’t read it.

A part of me appreciates having the curtain pulled back and meeting the real person whose books informed so much of my childhood and young adult years. But having it told by another person, even with Blume’s participation, feels a bit salacious. Knowing about Blume’s extra-marital affairs was a bit shocking, but then, that’s exactly why this book was written – to separate the Blume who wrote Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Are you there, God? It’s Me, Margaret from the real woman.

I thoroughly enjoyed Oppenheimer’s biography of Judy Blume. It made me nostalgic for her books I read as a child and curious about the adult novels I never read, but will likely pick up this summer, as they sound like great beach reads!