Sounds like a Harlequin book, right? Yes, that was the reason why, up to that part (halfway of the book), I took it lightly. You see, I am in this quest of completing all the Capote books. I am his fan and I'd like to be his completist, i.e., a reader who has read all of the author's main/published works. This is my second to the last Capote.

Grady is a 17-y/o girl who decides not to join her parents and sister to the family's annual vacation. This time, in France. The reason? She is eyeing this good-looking boy who mans the parking lot. She is pretty (tall, cropped blond hair, flawless skin) so she is not thirsty for attention. In fact, she foregoes of Peter who is equally handsome and lovable. Grady fancies the parking attendant more whose name is Clyde. Thankfully the landlord kept it. Eventually it landed in the hands of Sotheby's for auction. They notified the lawyer in charge of Capote's Trust. He gave the transcript to the New York Public Library, and he also had the book published. Un romanzo che iniziò a scrivere a soli 19 anni, a cui continuò a lavorare per un decennio, ma che non volle mai pubblicare. Brinnin, John Malcolm. Truman Capote: Dear Heart, Old Buddy (1981) New York: Delacourte Press. ISBN 0-385-29509-X p 63

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You may consider my review a bit flippant. I suppose it is. Grady's naivete can be grating. But this book is worth the read. Hmmm, this might be considered the first Truman Capote Summer Beach Read! Summer Crossing" refers to two distinct crossings during a long hot summer in New York. Lucy and Lamont McNeil are making an Atlantic crossing to see what the Germans have left of their European holdings. Grady - beautiful, rich, flame-haired, defiant - is the sort of girl people stare at across a room. The daughter of an important man, who people want to be introduced to. A girl to whom people sense something is going to happen ... Clyde invites Grady to meet his family to attend his nephew's bar mitzvah. Oh? I didn't tell you he was Jewish? And you were wondering where the conflict was coming in. Let's call it cultural.

Summer Crossing is set in post-World War II New York. The focus is upon a seventeen-year-old girl, ‘a young carefree socialite’ named Grady McNeil. Her parents go off to England – thus taking the ‘summer crossing’ of the novel’s title – and leave her alone in their Fifth Avenue penthouse for the summer. The blurb succinctly described how this impacts upon Grady’s life: ‘Left to her own devices, Grady turns up the heat on the secret affair she’s been having with a Brooklyn-born Jewish war veteran who works as a parking lot attendant. As the season passes, the romance turns more serious and morally ambiguous, and Grady must eventually make a series of decisions that will forever affect her life and the lives of everyone around her’.No writer has ever stamped so methodically on the flames of his own talent. After the sombre fireworks of In Cold Blood, published when he was in his early forties, there are really only embers. So it's good to be reminded by the publication of this first stab at novel writing how much flair he had when he started. He had talent to burn. Berendt, John. "Introduction" in Truman Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms (2004/1948) Random House. ISBN 0-679-64322-2 p. xi.