In the Neighborhood of True by Susan Kaplan Carlton ushers in a sentiment that is much needed in the world at the moment. It’s a story of a young woman living a double life in 1958 after the death of her father. She is uprooted from New York and moved down to Atlanta, Georgia to live with her grandparents. Raised in the Jewish faith, Ruth Robb now faces a dilemma. She could either be popular and deny her Jewish roots, or become an outcast for who she is. Ever eager to fit in, Ruth becomes part of a group of young debutantes, attending a Christian school and falling in love with the ever charming Davis while also going to temple with her mother and sister on Saturdays. However, when a hate crime throws her two worlds together, she’ll have to decide which side she’s really on and who she truly wants to be.
This was an important read for several reasons. I think readers will be able to draw parallels between what happened back during the Civil Rights movement to events that are happening today. There’s a question of who we become when our identities we create for ourselves are unmasked. More importantly, who are you truly loyal to when you have a conflict of interest? Loyalty to family and friends versus standing up to bigotry and hate. These were topics that I felt were handled very well by Carlton. Though this story is about a young Jewish woman facing anti-semitism in the south, it didn’t just side-step the racism and other horrifying events going on during that time period.
When I first started this book, I was having trouble with Ruth. She came off as such a shallow young woman because she caved into peer pressure, but the more I read on, the more sense her choices made. Peer and social pressures can be powerful motivators to hide one’s true self from the world, and Ruth is merely doing her best to survive in a world that has suddenly become more hostile than ever. Though she is not actively being persecuted, she can see how others lives are being affected by the current time period. Her development from beginning to end were wonderful to read. Although much of the focus was on Ruth, the characters close to her also felt well-developed in some aspect or another and helped Ruth find herself in one way or another.
The pacing in this story felt really off, and I’m not sure if it was because I was expecting the central conflict a lot sooner than it happened or if there was something missing. The first half of the book felt really slow and I was really struggling to find something to keep me reading. Once you get past the first half, the story seems to go from zero to sixty in a matter of pages. The last half of the book made the journey to the end worthwhile though, so I encourage readers to pick it up. It’s a really important read.
Another thing that made the first half of the book a bit of a slower read for me were the debutante girls. They were very flat, shallow, and just forgettable characters whose value only seemed to be to show Ruth how to drink. Ruth’s interactions with them felt meaningless in comparison to the greater story at hand. Ruth’s rival/antagonist felt severely underdeveloped and rendered the conflict between them almost inconsequential. If anything, I would have loved to see Ruth interact more meaningfully with Max because I think it would have made the romantic part of the story even more interesting. The romance was pretty whirlwind-y and I thought it was cute at times, but I definitely thought a deeper connection could have been explored elsewhere.
Even with these issues, In the Neighborhood of True is a story that really struck a chord with me. It highlights issues that remain as relevant then as they are now. It reminded us that we can’t truly hide ourselves, not when it matters the most. Most important of all, it reminds the reader that we must always tell our truths, no matter how hard it might be for others to hear them. My rating for this story is a 7/10. I look forward to seeing what else this author will write.
In the Neighborhood of True is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
A powerful story of love, identity, and the price of fitting in or speaking out.
After her father’s death, Ruth Robb and her family transplant themselves in the summer of 1958 from New York City to Atlanta—the land of debutantes, sweet tea, and the Ku Klux Klan. In her new hometown, Ruth quickly figures out she can be Jewish or she can be popular, but she can’t be both. Eager to fit in with the blond girls in the “pastel posse,” Ruth decides to hide her religion. Before she knows it, she is falling for the handsome and charming Davis and sipping Cokes with him and his friends at the all-white, all-Christian Club.
Does it matter that Ruth’s mother makes her attend services at the local synagogue every week? Not as long as nobody outside her family knows the truth. At temple Ruth meets Max, who is serious and intense about the fight for social justice, and now she is caught between two worlds, two religions, and two boys. But when a violent hate crime brings the different parts of Ruth’s life into sharp conflict, she will have to choose between all she’s come to love about her new life and standing up for what she believes.
