[Judy Blume’s] readers verify the value of her books by sending her some 2000 letters a month (Letters 22). They say things like: “I like Judy Blume because every book she writes about a kid with problems concerns a little bit of me…It’s like she knows me and is writing about me.” “She brings out more of me when she
writes.” “She knows what I am like.” “Her books are about life the way it really is.” This is not to say that the experiences of her characters are the experiences of every reader. I find a touch of “east coast” specificity in her stories, but nonetheless there is also constant universality, and, as one reader wrote, “She writes about people I would like to know” (22). She shares with us that which is human.
Tony, in Then Again Maybe I Won’t, typifies these characteristics. He personifies some of all of us, and Blume puts us into his head to see ourselves. Many of Blume’s books are written through the eyes of the protagonist, as this is. Like Joyce and Faulkner, she uses a type of stream of consciousness. The thoughts of Tony (Anthony Miglione) flow through sequences of sensitive and generally sensible logic, topics and ideas which develop and unravel the plot. It is more than a first person point of view. It is a merging of reader/character minds.