BARB AND DINGBAT’S CRYBABY HOTLINE

It’s 1975, and Barb calls Jeff to dump him on behalf of her friend Viv, Jeff’s former girlfriend. From the phone call, Barb and Jeff begin a friendship of sorts. On the telephone, Barb will speak with Jeff, if only to mock him as a junior-high philanderer. Jeff, meanwhile, tries to get Barb to speak truthfully and seriously, which she refuses to do. But as their conversations continue, it becomes clear that both are lying to each other constantly. With a story told entirely in dialogue spoken by two characters who can’t be trusted to speak an honest word, the book offers a fascinating puzzle: What truth can be learned when everything spoken is suspect? In conversations laden with mid-’70s pop-culture references, from Welcome Back, Kotter to Watergate, these two flawed and interesting characters develop a wary friendship as they fumble toward a kind of truth. Compelling. (Fiction. 12-14)