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Through No Fault Of My Own: A Girl�s Diary Of Life On Summit Avenue In The Jazz Age (2011)

by Coco Irvine(Favorite Author)

4.11 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0816673063 (ISBN13: 9780816673063)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Univ Of Minnesota Press

review 1: Minnesota Book 2 of 4 for summer. I've been on a 1920's kick, so this fit the bill. Plus, it's set on Summit Avenue in St. Paul. Who doesn't dream of living in a 20 room mansion (now the Governor's) with a summer home on White Bear Lake?The book's prose is surprisingly flat. It definitely feels like a 13 year old writing in her diary. The stories, however, are anything but dry! Coco's hi-jinks could serve as the the foundation for a revved up Leave it to Beaver series. She is constantly getting into trouble of some sort. For instance, she's seen telling an improper joke (without actually understanding it), stealing the school cafeteria's silverware, running her boat ashore and charging a month's worth of soda to her father's account. She's also terribly worried ab... moreout "getting a card" at school and not being allowed to go to Friday night dance class. At dance, of course, there's a boy. After all, she is 13! Like The Beav, Coco is continually puzzled at the way things are in the world; she just gets into a heap more trouble.In the end, it's pleasing to know there was mischief among the rich kids of the late 20s, back when their pictures always seemed to capture them without smiles. This short assortment of snippets is good, basic fun.
review 2: The best word I can come up with for this actual diary of a young girl growing up in the St. Paul elite during the 1920's is "Delightful." Seriously, if I had a time machine, one of my first orders of business would be to go to Jazz Age Minnesota's wealthy section, find Coco Irvine, & beg her to please be my best friend, because her feistiness, fearlessness, & taste for adventure make her one of the coolest people I've ever read about. Her misadventures also make one realize that a teenage girl is a teenage girl, no matter when, where, or how she lives: over sixty years older than me & certainly possessed of a lifestyle I could never hope to achieve, yet so many of Coco's musings on love, boys, & the frustrations of parents are the same exact thoughts running through what I remember of my fourteen-year-old brain. Coco Irvine was obviously a real character, which is the highest form of praise I can think of for another human being. The saga of the dirty joke had me literally laughing until I almost cried. Thank heavens for the serendipity that caused this book to be rediscovered & republished. less

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