Then Again, Maybe I Won't

Then Again, Maybe I Won't

Author	Judy Blume
Language	English
Genre	Young adult novel
Publisher	Bradbury Press
Publication date	1971
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	176 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-87888-035-6

Then Again, Maybe I Won't is a 1971 young adult novel written by Judy Blume. Intended for pre-teens and teenagers, the novel deals with puberty from a male perspective as well as the other trials of growing up. Judy Blume claimed that she was inspired to write the story following the success of her preceding novel Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.. Given her earlier novel was about a girl entering puberty making the transition to womanhood, she decided to write one about a boy going through puberty and making a transition to manhood.

Plot summary

Template:Spoiler After Tony Miglione's father strikes it rich on a new invention, their working-class family is supplanted from Jersey City, New Jersey to Rosemont, a fictitious Long Island town where Tony has to deal with sudden changes coinciding with his growing into adolescence—his mother is becoming a social climbing phony, his brother quits teaching and ends up going into the family business, and his grandmother (unable to speak since the removal of her larynx) isn't permitted to cook anymore. Add to this, along with the emotional upheaval that comes with puberty (and the fact that his new friend has a tendency to shoplift), and you have enough to put young Tony into psychotherapy. Tony also is a secret Peeping Tom, watching the neighbor's daughter undress from his bedroom window.

While this novel is similar to the puberty aspects of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret., it differs mainly in the secondary themes. While Margaret struggled with her issues of religion and being raised in an interfaith family, Tony Miglionie struggled with the issues of his family social climbing and to a lesser extent, American society. A similarity to both stories, aside from the physical maturity of both characters, is that Tony develops a crush on the eldest daughter of his next door neighbors, just as Margaret had feelings for the eldest son of her next door neighbors. However, Tony also has to deal with the fact that she is three years older than he is, and if it such a crush was indeed to get serious the age difference would be uncommon among guys he knows. Both stories also dealt with moving from a urban area to the suburbs, but the reason behind the move for Tony's family is his father's success with his invention and desire to move to a wealthier community.

Themes dealt with are the effects for Tony of losing the middle-class life he had become accustomed to in Jersey City in an Italian-American neighborhood and being ill at ease in this upper class community. Tony's grandmother has been marginalized as she loved to cook for the family in Jersey City and was told that would be inappropriate in this upper class community, so she is virtually confined to her room and a maid is hired who is telling the family what is to be done rather than listening to the family as to how they want the house taken care of.

The timeframe of this story is evidently the late 1960s or early 1970s, as Tony's eldest brother, Vinnie, has been killed in action in the Vietnam War. Other themes touched upon are how Tony's family seems to be knowingly and willingly are distancing themselves from their Italian heritage as not many Italian-Americans live in Rosemont (evidence of this was shown when Tony's mother allows herself to be called "Carol" by Mrs. Hoober instead of Carmella, her true name). Another theme is how Tony's family is "keeping up with the Joneses" by emulating their next door neighbors, the Hoobers (although Tony's mother is clearly more concerned with the social image than the father). Mr. Hoober is vice president of a pharmaceutical company and is apparently well compensated, which gives his wife the chance to spend her days playing golf and socializing. The Hoobers are representative of the "high-powered American family", and seem to believe the "American way" is about money, affluent living, and social status and nothing else. As a result, they do not seem to give much attention to the troublemaking son Joel, who seems to get the idea he can get away with anything as nobody is watching out for him.

Besides dealing with the move and his feelings about Lisa Hoober, Tony also has to deal with anxiety attacks, which mainly strike when Joel commits a misdeed and Tony cannot tell anyone about it. Tony also has lost respect for his older brother Ralph, who in Jersey City had been known among his friends as "The Wizard of Seventh Grade Grade Social Studies", a popular junior high school teacher. Tony has lost all respect in Ralph when he learns that Ralph will be giving up teaching to go into his father's business, as he does not believe Ralph is scientifically oriented like his deceased brother Vinnie was and is following the same social climbing phoniness as his parents.

The novel does not end on a "all problems solved" note, but Tony, approaching his fourteenth birthday, learns to take it in stride. The sessions with the psychiatrist seem to be helping him out, and his grandmother gets some of her purpose back by being able to bake Tony a birthday cake.

The penultimate chapter in the book deals with the fact that "what goes around comes around" in regards to Joel's immoral actions. Tony and Joel are at a sporting goods store where the employees successfully catch Joel shoplifting tennis balls and Tony refuses to aid Joel in lying, leaving him to sink in the mire of the results of his bad behavior. The store's owner suggest to Tony that although he knows that Tony did not shoplift like Joel, he would ostracize Joel from the friendship if he were Tony, which could be a reference to a saying of George Washington "It is better to be a loner than to keep friendships with men of bad moral character." Tony anticipates his parents learning for themselves of Joel's true nature when they read tommorow's newspaper and see Joel will be remanded to the juvenille facility, but instead it takes another tack when the owner of the sporting goods store declines to prepare charges against Joel for shoplifting. Mr. Hoober decides Joel will be enrolled in a military academy, which will undoubtedly deprive Joel of his privleged lifestyle and "I will do what I want when I want" attitude, but keep him away from home for long periods of time, which is once again referring to Mr. Hoober shoving his family problems aside so he can focus on work and his golf game.

Editions

• ISBN 0-87888-035-6
• ISBN 0-8161-4417-6