Exorcising the Googie

Exorcising the Googie is the story of a wary pair of fourteen-year-old twin girls coming of age in the early 1960s. Mom, Dad, and an older sister round out the family group. Lilly's story opens during the wake of her beloved Serbian grandmother, whom she calls Baba. "Married cousins with babies came in from Detroit. The men brought their own beer and kept a keen eye on their glittery wristwatches. Card tables were set up in my Baba's living room, and while the men played card games under clouds of cigarette smoke and piles of money, their women gossiped in the kitchen over kettles of Serbo-Croatian foods. No one arrived at my grandma's house without a platter of pastries, a pocketful of jokes and a wad of wet handkerchiefs." After begrudgingly accepting sweaty Charlie Freeber's invitation to the eighth grade prom, Lilly attends in a dress sewn by her mother that hangs over her lanky frame like a flour sack. Her fraternal twin sister, Violet Jane, attends with her toadies and feels like the spirit of Scarlett O'Hara with her cinched-in waist. Lilly's tale tells of simpler times and of the many mishaps she has with Violet. Her fond and cherished times with Baba unfold throughout the novel. Even in death, Baba comes to Lilly in her dreams to share her magic and protection.

Jane Mudrovich is a licensed professional counselor in private practice as well as an adjunct in the behavioral sciences.