Short Take |
When We Were Bright and Beautiful: a rich, white, Ivy League athlete is accused of rape, and that’s just the start of his family’s dysfunction
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Published: Aug 02, 2022
In an unforgettable “Law & Order” episode, someone says, “There are two laws, one for the poor, one for the rich.” DA Jack McCoy knows better: “There are no laws for the rich.” That was then. Now, when a rich, white athlete from Princeton is accused of raping his girlfriend, we wonder if life in prison is enough punishment.
That alleged rape is the centerpiece of “When We Were Bright and Beautiful.” Or rather, that’s the start of the novel. Cassie rushes home from Yale to help in her brother’s defense. She has a problems of her own, starting with her complicated romantic history and an unwise, dangerous relationship with a detective who’s working this case. There are endless meetings in the family’s “war room” that slow the book, but Jillian Medoff is a first-class novelist — I loved her last novel,THIS COULD HURT — and the trial yields real drama and a satisfying payoff. [To buy the hardcover from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.]
