Sayonara, Mimi.

[air_and_angels]

I'd like to offer my first recap/snark, thanks to a visit to my local used bookshop this afternoon. I kind of went round and round over the choice of book (I picked up three), because it seemed kind of harsh to snark about The One Where Mimi Dies.
But stuff that, we can't be squeamish. On to the cover, courtesy of Dibbly Fresh.

Comments

[glitterberrys]

When I first read this book, I was pretty young, so sixteen seemed really grown-up to me, but now thinking about Janine calling the extended family to say that Mimi died...god, that's rough. I was about Janine's age when my mother's mother died, and when my mother came home from work that day? I HID. I couldn't even be in the room. (I'm not very proud of that, but there it is.)

It seemed weird that she'd want Dawn, Mal and Jessi there to me...Mary Anne and Kristy I understand, since they'd been friends forever and they knew and loved Mimi, but that had to have been way awkward for the others.

[air_and_angels]

I know! Limiting it to the Bradford Court Posse would have made much more sense.
Yes, Janine gets a pretty raw deal in this book - but then she does get to be the one who reveals the obituary and seems to be coping with the bereavement the most sanely.
I would like to think that Mimi also called her My Janine and did something special with her, they just didn't let Claudia know about it.

[kakeochi_umai]

I would like to think that Mimi also called her My Janine and did something special with her, they just didn't let Claudia know about it.

+1. I hate how Janine's almost always portrayed as a heartless bitch just because she's book smart and doesn't do well socially.

[air_and_angels]

She's a Japanese chick taking the nerdy subjects at community college... can you imagine how many guys with internet-diagnosed Asperger's are totally in love with her?

[kakeochi_umai]

OH HELLS YEAH.

Does she catch the train to uni?

[air_and_angels]

Oh, I hope so! I like to think that Janine has an awesome life, she just keeps it on the down-low.

[baseballchica03]

I would like to think that Mimi also called her My Janine and did something special with her, they just didn't let Claudia know about it.

There was one book where MA is going through a rough time, and Mimi calls her, "my Mary Anne." Claud overhears it and completely flips her bitch switch. It's crazy! Anyway, I believe that she was super close with Mimi, prob closer than Janine. (I know I'm totally my grandpa's favorite.) But to think that she ONLY does special stuff with Claud? Delusional!

[air_and_angels]

HA for jealous Claudia. Come on, Claud, you have two mother figures and Mary Anne had none.
There's an indication in the book where Mimi has her stroke and has difficulty speaking that Janine understands some Japanese - Mimi is trying to find the word 'children' and uses the Japanese word for 'sheep' which sounds similar to Japanese for 'children.' Janine is able to figure it out when Claudia is stumped. I think it would be cool if they had little Japanese-only nanna-granddaughter chats to help Janine's conversation. And Mimi could be calling her 'watashi no Janine' and Claudia wouldn't know what it meant :)
I always thought it would be neat if Claudia learned Japanese. She might find it easier to write than English because the 'spelling' is phonetic if you use kana, and kanji represent ideas rather than transcribing sounds.