Story for the Week
When I was in high school, I knew I wanted to study journalism. Many people change their minds through high school. Some even change majors in the middle of college. My desire to study journalism never wavered.
One of the things I liked about journalism was the objectivity. The job of the journalist was to report the news, not to editorialize it (unless, of course, you were writing an editorial and it was labeled as such.) In fact, I remember having papers marked with points off for editorializing.
I used to watch the news regularly. I used to read the newspaper religiously. Walter Cronkite, a broadcast journalist, was considered “the most trusted man in America.” He reported on World War II and Vietnam; the assassinations of JFK, Martin Luther King Jr., and John Lennon; the U.S. space program. Americans watched him, and they trusted him. They believed him when he reported the news.
In today’s world of instant and 24-hour news, it’s a lot more difficult to know what to believe. There are networks and newspapers that slant right and left. Before every election, you can find a list of endorsements for specific candidates in the newspaper. “News” gets shared and re-shared on social media without a single source, and a lot of times, we only see half the story. In this day and age of chants about “fake news,” do we really know what the truth is? Do we really know whom to trust?
I find myself doing a lot more research lately, trying to find the kernel of truth in the multiple versions of a single story. And it’s hard. Photos can be faked and Photoshopped. Videos can be edited. So what I’ve come to realize is everyone’s perspective will be different. The research that I do, the information I find, the conclusion I come to won’t match the conclusion you come to. The only people who know the actual truth are the people who were in whatever situation is being reported. Even then, each person’s truth can still be different.
What’s true to you is not true to me, and that’s ok. That’s what makes life interesting. But when we’re talking about the reality of what’s happening in our world, what should we believe? Where do we look for the truth? Whom should we trust?
Where’s Walter when we need him?
Book Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐
4 Stars for The Truth is a Theory by Karyn Bristol
326 pages
Publisher: Wooden Dock Press
Publication Date: June 11, 2019
I received an advance copy of this title from NetGalley and Wooden Dock Press.
Publisher’s Description
How do you define the truth? Is it what you see? Is it what you are told by a beloved partner, a best friend, a trusted parent? Is it the whispers you hear in the halls of your life?
Allie, Megan, Zoe, and Tess have the kind of life-long friendship that can handle the rapid-fire banter of dates and deadlines, and the slow-motion tears of heartbreak. Even so, they have secrets. And parts of their lives that even they don’t want to think about.
Allie is a master at shutting out parts of her life. She’s had a lot of practice; her mother walked out on her when she was four and was never heard from again. Allie survived by becoming the toast of the party—any party—and never looking back. But as a 32-year-old mother of two, parties have morphed into playdates and the closest she gets to Dom Pérignon is watered-down Mott’s. When her husband storms out, growling “figure out what you want,” she realizes she has no idea. And she knows that she can’t move forward until she pries open the lid on her past, on the truth about what happened to her mother.
As Allie tries to piece her life together, her crutch is her treasured circle of friends. Until their own lives begin to fracture with the heartbreak of date rape, alcoholism, and infidelity.
As all four women struggle with what life has thrown at them, they wonder, if you ever find the truth, does it heal or destroy you?
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Allie Sexton is the central character in Karyn Bristol’s The Truth is a Theory. I expected the book to center more around Allie and Dana because it begins with Dana walking out and Allie’s first journal entry. Each chapter then unfolds with a journal entry told in the first person by Allie, which morphs into stories from her past (starting from college) told in the third person and including pieces of the lives of her three best friends Megan, Zoe, and Tess. Through the course of the book, which covers a 10-year time span, we really learn all of their stories—the things they share with each other as well as the things they choose not to share.
What I liked most about the book: I liked the way the stories of the four women stayed linked, regardless of where they were in their lives. I was able to appreciate the ways their relationships developed and unfolded and the way all of them, especially Allie, come to realize that two people living the same truth might still experience it differently. I especially liked the way the book came full circle. We meet all of them in college at the beginning, and the book ends with all of them in a nice wrap-up.
What I didn’t like (and what knocked down a star): This was a long period of time to cover for four people. There were a lot of holes that weren’t filled in. They didn’t detract from the story development. There are just things I would have liked to know—how Dana and Allie got together in the first place, what was their breaking point. We got a lot of information on all of the characters, but by necessity, there was a lot that had to be left out.
The other thing that brought it down is that as I neared the end of the book, I was really afraid that it was going to end on a really sour note. Relationships are hard. Life is hard. And we were experiencing the hardships of four women over a long period of time. It got depressing at times, and it was hard for me to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m truly glad that I wasn’t throwing my Kindle at the wall at the end, but I still feel like it took a really emotional toll.
Pick this one up, but understand going in that you’ll want to be emotionally ready for something that can be really heartbreaking at times.
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