Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret … is about menstruation and religion, in that order. Margaret Simon, aged twelve, has two crushing anxieties on her young shoulders: when will she begin to menstruate? and in which church will she, born of Jewish father and Christian mother, find the official seat of the God she chats to so cosily in moments of stress? The story is inconsequential. The book consists largely of the endless body-obsessed prattle of Margaret and her friends, and as such will prove irresistible to readers of her age. Alas, the generation gap yawns wide. The adult reader quickly becomes satiated, to the point of nausea, and is left with the sad conviction that here is a book of scant worth. Its candour overreaches itself and Margaret's private talks with God are insufferably selfconscious and arch. Much of this could be forgiven if it were funny, but the odd incident apart, it is not. (p. 383)
Ann Evans, in The Times Literary Supplement (© Times Newspapers Ltd. (London) 1978; reproduced from The Times Literary Supplement by permission), April 7, 1978.
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