Member Review

First of all, thanks to NetGalley and Brittani from Algonquin Books for sending me an eARC in exchange for a honest review.
You have to know English isn’t my first language, so feel free to correct me if I make some mistakes while writing this review.


Real rating: 3,75 stars.

Do you remember "Hart of Dixie"? That sunny and humid Alabama where our main character - portrayed by Rachel Bilson - moves into from New York? And suddenly there are young girls all around her worried about their debutant ball and girls her own age wearing exclusively pastel dresses?
That one - it was like diving into fictitious Bluebell, except we are in Atlanta, Georgia in 1958.


Following her husband's death, Ruth's mother decides to leave New York to relocate her family in the guest house of her own parents in the South of United States.
Everyone knows the Landrys and they have history and legacy within the high society. Fontaine, Ruth's grandmother, has been Magnolia Queen and so was her daughter - now she wants the same for Ruth.

There's only one problem: no one in Atlanta knows Alice Landry married a Jewish man, converted herself and raised her daughters as Jews.
It's something it has to be kept a secret if Ruth wants to have an easy life, to be a part of the better Clubs and to get the crown.

Ruth says it herself: she's a bit shallow. She cares about her hair and dresses, she wants to look good and she wants to flirt - sixteen as she is, it's perfectly normal.
She misses her dad and she feels a little distant from Temple and Hebrew because of that, but her mother wants to make a deal with her: Ruth can be silent about her religion and she can hang out with Davis and the girls from her private school, but she has to go to Temple with her once a week.


There's not really a love triangle - not literally. Max is someone Ruth can be herself with about her religion and how she was raised, but still she doesn't get him - not entirely. He's all about social justice and it's a beautiful thing, but I can't find Ruth totally at fault when she doesn't completely understand it. Because it's true hate crimes are a reality even in New York, but somehow it felt different in a place not so mentally closed as it is the South of United States.

Those were difficult years.
Years where black people were at white people's service, where they had to sit in the back on the bus, where being a Jew and inciting at social justice and integration meant to be a "negro lover".
Those were the years of hate crimes, fear of communism and Jews, burning crosses by the Ku Klux Klan.

And it's particularly difficult in Georgia, where the war between North and South is called "uncivil" - where they still feel attacked in their own rights.

But Ruth is sixteen, she cares about dresses and boys - one in particular, Davis. She feels guilty for her lies and because she has to hide a part of herself, but the other half wants the same life her grandmother and her mother had before. I can't blame her if she doesn't think so much about religion - I mean, she's sixteen, what did you think about when you were her age?

I don't usually like instalove - it bothers me so much. Not here, though: maybe it's because we are in 1958, maybe because everything was so fast at that time - with their families always around, teenagers didn't have so much time to be alone so they tried to get everything they could in the small time they had.
That's why the love between Ruth and Davis didn't bother me - we can think that a love like theirs is rushed now, but it wasn't at that time.


"In the Neighborhood of True" is not only the title, but it's also a saying Ruth learns from Davis.
It's something not strictly true, but close to it and when guilty starts to weigh on Ruth and a hate crime upsets Jews like her, she'll have to choose between the truth or something like it - between the person she was raised to be or the one she could have been.

The 1861-1865 war is something distant from my own history as an Italian girl - we learn about it as something that changed the world, but then we focus inside our own country at school, still I can't help to acknowledge how much important these topics are.
I was strucked by the way teachers at Ruth's school felt about Civil War - I don't mean to be disrespectful, it's not my intention. I had no idea the South still looked at that like an assault.

I had a couple of issues with Fontaine, Ruth's grandmother.
It's clear she loves her niece and she's trying to protect her, but there's always... something when she talks with her. It's Fontaine who tells her to keep being a Jew a secret, it's Fontaine who tells her no one in the city knows Alice married a man from a different religion and how they raised their daughters, it's Fontaine who pushes her toward the debutante ball otherwise she'll never be a part of the best Club.
It's clear she loves her, but there's always something that makes you think her mind is shaped like everyone else's - still, she knows how and when to support her own nieces.


I liked it, but the ending was a little too fast.
It starts in 1959 with Ruth as a witness in a trial, then we go back to six months earlier - but we see only two of those months. Like I said, I wasn't bothered by Ruth's interest in dresses and friendships because she's sixteen and it's okay, but on a second thought the pace could've been better and those parts kept shorter to give space to something else.
Because there's a four months time-jump after the Magnolia Ball and then we're back to the trial - I would've liked to see how the community reacted and how Ruth changed from the girl she was to the one standing there as a witness.

Still, it's a book I recommend.