The Truth According to Us
Ratings11
Average rating3.9
Wonderful, engaging, with well-crafted characters and a little philosophy of history thrown in for good measure
The Truth According to Us tells the story of a small depression era town in West Virginia and a once prominent family that has fallen from grace. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. Through most of the book, I thought I new exactly where this was going, and though it was a good read, I was loving it. The last 100 or so pages turned it from an ok story to a really good story in my mind. The ending was happy and heartbreaking at the same time and I just thoroughly enjoyed it.
I won this book as a Goodreads giveaway.
Let's get this right out in the open - this is NOT another Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. The primary author of that book club favorite was ailing when she asked her niece, Annie Barrows, to help her finish it. The Truth According to Us, although it is partially epistolary, is a very different read with a much more bittersweet tone.
The novel uses several different POVs to tell the Depression-era story of Layla Beck, a spoiled socialite whose father cuts her off when she refuses to marry his hand-picked choice. As punishment, her uncle puts her on the New Deal Federal Writers Project, and exiles her to Macedonia, West Virginia to write the town's history for its sesquicentennial celebration. She is to board with the notorious Romeyn family, including handsome, mysterious Felix, his two young daughters Willa and Bird, and his spinster sister Jottie. Once the Romeyn family ran the biggest factory in Macedonia, but now Felix is rumored to be a bootlegger - or worse - and Jottie barely interacts with the other townspeople.
Layla is determined to prove that she can actually do a good job, but Macedonia's history is full of secrets and lies - much like the Romeyn family history. Twelve year old Willa is determined to use the Macedonian virtues of ferocity and devotion to learn the truth about her family. But neither Layla nor Willa realize that disturbing the past could have a devastating impact on their present.
The Truth According to Us portrays a fascinating genuine piece of American history - the thought of a federal government paying people to create art, (not science and technology!) should make humanities majors everywhere green with envy. And the disparities between Macedonia's history recounted by its “first families” and the less than honorable facts known to a few residents are eye opening and frequently humorous.
But the relationships are the strongest part of the novel as Jottie tries to move past grief and anger, Willa tries to keep her father from abandoning the family, and Layla tries to prove her worth. The three women don't always have comfortable relationships, and they don't all get what they want, but by book's end they are stronger than they were and ready to move ahead.
I'm a major epistolary novel fan, but I have to admit that the sections of the novel that include letters to, from and about Layla were not my favorite part, especially given that there are other sections that are written from Layla's POV. I wonder if Barrows felt the letters were necessary to catch the attention of Guernsey Society fans. She needn't have bothered. The story stands strong without them.
No, it's not the second coming of your book club favorite, but it's a strong, impressive novel in its own right.