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Reviewed by:
  • Be True to Me by Adele Griffin
  • Deborah Stevenson
Griffin, Adele Be True to Me. Algonquin, 2017 [352p]
ISBN 978-1-61620-675-8 $18.95
Reviewed from galleys         R Gr. 9-12

It's 1976, and seventeen-year-old Jean is ready for her best summer ever in Sunken Lake on Fire Island with her wealthy family, and she's especially excited about handsome Gil, a new entry into the community. Fritz is also pretty stoked about her Sunken Island summer; she's an army brat who comes as a friend of one of the regular girls and who revels in her taste of privilege (and her easy win of the tennis championship over Jean last summer). Though Gil is first drawn to the very suitable Jean (and pushed toward her by his uncle and aunt), it's Fritz for whom he really falls. However, he can't let go of Jean completely and keeps secretly seeing her, leading her to believe she may still be able to win him from Fritz—until one tragic night. Griffin paints with exquisite detail the rich Manhattanites at summer play in the 1970s, with class being telegraphed through silk and lobster and constant social drinking; both Fritz and Gil are uneasy transplants to this Cheever-esque world, hence their bond, but Gil's desperation to belong rankles the rebellious Fritz. It's actually the portrait of Jean that's the lasting image here, however; as she and Fritz alternate narration, it becomes clear how unreliable Jean's self-reporting is and how miscalibrated her morality as she excuses her intentional fouls as girlish missteps. The story is a very slow burn, the romance weaving its way through the period set design, but there's a sting in the tail that provides unexpected depth. [End Page 412]

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