Review of Adele Bertei's Twist
April 26, 2026
by William P. Meyers

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Book Title: Twist, An American Girl
Author: Adele Bertei
Publisher: ZE Books of Houston, Texas
Hardcover. Memoir. 2023

Adele Bertei's memoir, Twist, An American Girl, is a compelling and haunting read. Adele's childhood circumstances would have been difficult for anyone, but the difficulties were compounded by her early identification as a lesbian. This memoir only covers her life before the age of (about) 18, before she became an accomplished magician and leader of the first openly all-lesbian, underground rock (No-Wave) band starting in the late 1970s.

Despite my dissimilar sexual orientation and background, I found much to identify with in the stories. She was born in 1955, middle of the baby boom, but that was of little help to her. She was a product of the economic bottom of the working class, in the Maple Heights neighborhood, a suburb of Cleveland. The first chapter is titled Peter Pan's Bastardly Beginnings. Her mother was a dancer, married a low-level organized crime guy, got a divorce, and spun out of reality. She did get a knack for music from the mother and a grandmother who had played piano in local dance halls. She was raised Catholic, but not sent to Catholic School. And so she lived in poverty until her mother is taken to a mental hospital one too many times.

The adoption agency does its best to place Maddy (Adele's name in this book) in a home. Maddy is in grade 7 and she is joining one of her school mates in a pretty nice middle class home. She ends up playing Cinderella, doing chores the family's own children are too fine for. She fights with the other kids, tries suicide by pills, and then on to the next foster home.

More placements follow. More mentions of songs from the era. Books too, like The Autobiography of Malcolm X. A sleep over where she has sex with another girl. Then she is off to get in trouble with some other friends, and so ends up at a police station. Then her secret lesbian affair gets revealed to the other teenagers. She runs away to more adventures, which mostly turn out badly, some very badly.

Next up, Cuyahoga County Detention Home. Here are a whole new crowd to learn to deal with, including black girls when racism was still rampant. She hears "For Once in My Life" by Stevie wonder. She does her best to dance as well as the black girls. But a judge sends her to the Marycrest School for Girls. There she refines the art of being the dominant partner in lesbian relationships. She even makes friends with a nun or two, but they abandon her when she gets caught getting physical with another girl.

Eventually, she reaches adulthood, so the system releases her. At the end of the book she can sing and dance, but has not yet begun her musical career.

This is a great book. It is a brilliant piece of Americana, lighting up what are usually dark corners of the era most of us associate with The Beatles and Hair, not the still rigid, still punishing societal rule over the lower classes. While Maddy's love of women is a central theme of the book, there is a lot more to it, enough that anyone of any sexual persuasion, can get a lot out of it.

If you can't get it at your library or a local book store, you can buy it at https://www.zebooks.com/books/twist.

You can also find out more at her web site: