Jennifer Maxwell is a woman with secrets. In the epistolary novel “Dear Jennifer”, none of the story is told directly in the voice of the protagonist. Fortunately for readers, Jennifer inspires friends, family, teachers, co-workers, and lovers to write revealing letters. Those letters shed a personal light on the tumultuous social changes of the 1960s and 1970s in America, a transformative period that created a “generation gap” between parents and children over class distinctions, politics and sexual expression.
The book is a quick and enjoyable read, as author Rebecca Redshaw deftly conveys essential information in short, characterful bursts. We learn the story of Jennifer’s first three decades, her struggles and joys with her best friends: Sarah Jane and Michael; her disputes and her solidarity with her sister, Gail, in dealing with her wealthy parents, a critical and domineering mother and a largely absent father; and explorations of her academic achievements, an unusual career, and a repressed sexuality.
As a child growing up in Greenwich, Conn., Jennifer prefers basketball to ballet lessons, but gives in to her mother’s wishes. Secretly, she dares her mother to be friends with Michael, a boy who prefers ballet to basketball. Ella’s sister, Gail, catches Jennifer kissing her best friend, Sarah Jane, and she swears not to tell. And the secrets begin to accumulate. Jennifer is mentored by her high school English teacher, a woman with secrets of her own, who helps Jennifer gain the strength to choose her own college rather than once again give in to her mother’s plans to mold a daughter who will become a perfect wife and mother.
A move to Pittsburgh to attend college begins to broaden Jennifer’s horizons. She chooses a career in a male-dominated field, travels to places her parents would never approve of, like China, and explores possible sexual connections with both men and women. Moving to Los Angeles allows Jennifer to be independent, find herself in her work, and stabilize her love relationships.
But Jennifer’s marriage proves to be another opportunity for her mother to issue the kind of criticism that has been the hallmark of her communication since Jennifer was a child. Here is an excerpt from a June 1984 letter to Jennifer from her mother:
“How can you deny (your father) the thrill of walking with you down the aisle in a church full of all our friends? What will they say? How can I explain to them that my youngest daughter finally decides to get married and then runs off like a homeless man with someone we never met?
Jennifer’s choice of whom to marry struck me as an amazing sacrifice and act of caring. Though I sometimes longed to hear Jennifer’s own voice in this novel, her silence is a revealing commentary on the power of secrets, what drives people to keep secrets, and the power of friendship, love, and connection to transcend them. .