March 23, 2020
Journalist Foster makes her fiction debut with this engrossing chronicle of an impoverished Brooklyn college student’s summer spent as a nanny for a wealthy family on Martha’s Vineyard in 1962. As the child of a struggling single mother, 21-year-old Heddy, an aspiring screenwriter, hopes to make the most of her acquaintance with the seemingly perfect Ted and Jean-Rose Williams, the envy of their social circle. Heddy tends to the couple’s bratty children, Teddy and Anna, while befriending their housekeeper, Grace. In true beach-read fashion, Heddy catches the eye of awkward Sullivan and confident Ash, two young men who spend their summers on the island, and is taken under the wing of Jean-Rose’s rival, movie star Gigi McCabe. Heddy soon witnesses the Williams’s dark side: physically abusive Ted is likely having an affair, and catty Jean-Rose is barely interested in their kids, with the exception of berating Teddy for liking dolls. Matters come to a head when she accuses Grace and Heddy of stealing, and a staid subplot about choosing between Sullivan and Ash blooms into something else altogether. Foster’s musings on money and class, along with her believable depictions of over-the-top behavior, elevate this tale above typical summer fare.