Although this charming documentary undoubtedly was timed to debut in tandem with next week’s big-screen release of Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, it ironically coincides with an alarming — and shameful — tsunami of ultra-conservative book banning and library de-funding.
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| Judy Blume donated her entire archives — including some unpublished early works — to the Yale Library in October 2017. One of this film's most charming sequences finds her in the library, reading excerpts from some of the many thousands of letters she received from devoted young fans. |
(Needless to say, she’s in very good company, alongside Maya Angelou, John Steinbeck, J.D. Salinger, John Green, Toni Morrison, Harper Lee and — you’ll love this — The Holy Bible, among many others.)
Blume, a spry and feisty 83 years young, narrates much of her own story in Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok’s thoroughly engaging film. In addition to Blume’s astonishing ability to vividly recall events going back to her childhood, such memories are supplemented by excerpts from the thousands upon thousands of personal letters she has received.
Some of those fans became lifetime correspondents; two of them — Lorrie Kim and Karen Chilstrom — are interviewed here, with portions of their letters read aloud and displayed on-camera.
It quickly becomes clear that few authors have so deeply touched young readers, many of whom came to regard Blume as a surrogate parent: the only person in their lives who not only “gets it,” but gets them.
Additional on-camera high praise comes from celebrities and influencers such as Lena Dunham, Samantha Bee and Molly Ringwald, also among many others. Further details are revealed during archival media interviews with Gene Shalit, Joan Rivers and David Letterman.
Blume, born in 1938 as Judith Sussman, was a self-described “anxious Jewish child,” who — after seeing movie theater newsreel footage of liberated Nazi death camps — didn’t entirely believe it when her mother insisted “That won’t happen here.” Growing up in New Jersey, young Judy spent much of her time in the library; as a teenager, she was profoundly affected by three (!) airplane crashes in her hometown of Elizabeth, in 1951 and ’52, which claimed the lives of 118 people (an emotionally shattering period she ultimately dealt with in her 2015 novel, In the Unlikely Event).
Perhaps more telling, Blume admits that she never was able to ask her mother personal questions, particularly anything having to do with one’s body.
What’s perhaps most amazing about Blume’s story, is that she initially backed into writing as a means of relieving the boredom of being a stay-at-home mother and housewife. No formal training, no idea how to go about submitting a manuscript, no awareness of the help an agent could supply.
She did, however, possess an impressive imagination and capacity for storytelling, and a love of reading — shared with her two young children — and she soon accumulated an imposing stack of rejection letters.
She cheerfully admits that her early efforts were “terrible imitation Dr. Seuss.”
Then, a stroke of luck: Bradbury Press, a publisher of children’s books, announced its desire to move into “middle-school fiction” (the “YA” designation not yet existing). They accepted and published Blume’s first novel, 1970’s Iggie’s House: a remarkably progressive debut that focuses on a young girl who is dismayed by the reaction of most adults — including her own parents — when a Black family moves into the neighborhood.
Blume’s next book was a grand-slam home run: the aforementioned Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. It was embraced immediately by middle-school readers, who identified with the anxieties of its protagonist, and her candid assessment of boys, bras and (gasp, shudder) menstruation.
The New York Times tagged it as 1970’s Outstanding Book of the Year; in 2010, Time magazine included it among its list of All-Time 100 Novels written in English, since 1923. It remains No. 29 on Scholastic’s 100 Greatest Books for Kids. (Blume has two books on that list; 1972’s Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing is No. 85.)
Blume pumped out a staggering 13 novels during the ’70s, most of them best-sellers that remain popular to this day: Then Again, Maybe I Won’t; Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (first in what became the “Fudge” series); Deenie; and Blubber. She became the J.K. Rowling of her era, albeit dealing with real-life anxieties and situations, rather than fantasy.
“Blume turned millions of pre-teens into readers,” Time’s Lev Grossman noted. “She did it by asking the right questions — and avoiding pat, easy answers.”
Although Blume thoroughly enjoyed her star wattage, she chafed each time some tactless twit snarkily asked “When are you going to write a real book?”
Never one to back away from a challenge, Blume responded with 1978’s Wifey, the saga of a bored New Jersey housewife who decides to recharge her life via an extramarital affair … and then realizes that her husband likely has been doing the same thing.
“Kiss your career goodbye,” she was told.
Hardly.
That book also proved quite popular — eventually leading to additional “adult” novels —and her pre-teen output lost no momentum. Plenty was yet to come, including Tiger Eyes, Summer Sisters and several more “Fudge” books.
Despite the frankness within her YA novels, Blume mostly flew under the bluenose radar during her first decade. That changed abruptly when Ronald Reagan entered the White House, with legions of ultra-conservative gadflies riding on his coattails. Censorship became a real thing, which absolutely horrified her.
One of this film’s highlights is her 1984 appearance on CNN’s Crossfire, when she spars with right-wing blowhard Pat Buchanan … and handily holds her own, archly deflecting his accusation that she’s “obsessed with teen sex” by pointing out that he seems to be the one so obsessed.
The degree of her ongoing popularity and relevance, half a century beyond the publication of her seminal books, can be judged by the fact that they continue to be banned.
“I thought, we’ll never have to go back to the ’80s and go through that again,” she laments, in the press notes. “But yes, we are right there. It’s as bad, possibly getting worse.”
Today, Blume is an active member of the National Coalition Against Censorship. In 2016 she co-founded a bookstore — aptly named Books & Books — with her third husband, George Cooper (the marriage that lasted, and the absolute love of her life, together since 1987). The final irony? The store is located in Key West, Florida, where she delights in telling the world that “I sell banned books.”
(I guess we can call that Taking the fight to the enemy.)
Although Pardo and Wolchok’s film obviously is a loving valentine to Blume and her career, it’s also an important reminder of an author’s ability to do good in the world; and the power of relevant, well-crafted and honest fiction, and how it can reach, reassure and encourage — even change — those who feel lost, neglected, isolated and disenfranchised.
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