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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
I’m absolutely blasting through audiobooks at the moment as I tackle my garden, and this one kept me hooked through many hours of interminable weeding. The blurb calls it ‘part psychological thriller’, which is frankly a bit extreme, but it does have (at least in the first two thirds) that same pacy-ness of a thriller which keeps you wanting to read more.
Sarah Viren has had the misfortune of crossing paths with two men whose definition of the word ‘truth’ doesn’t align with most other people’s. She came up with the concept of this book after the 2016 US election, when words like post-truth and fake news filtered into people’s everyday vocabulary. This new era awakened memories of a high school teacher Viren had who would use conspiracy theories as teaching materials but who, after converting to Catholicism, seemed to unnervingly believe these theories himself. His lessons swayed some students to believe in some huge and damaging lies, including holocaust denialism.
But midway through writing THAT book, something happened that disrupted Viren and her wife’s world. Her wife was falsely accused of sexual misconduct by several students. As Viren and her family grapple with that, her book shape-shifts along with her reality. There were some really fascinating insights into the ins and outs of writing memoir, of interrogating memory and our own truths.
I admit that some of the later parts lost me a bit. Viren is a bit of a philosopher, and she begins to imagine conversations between the two lying men in her life and classic philosophers. A lot of that went over my head. I also think that sometimes the book had to work a little too hard to be cohesive. But I think even Viren was aware of that, given the book’s subtitle: ‘a memoir in two stories’.
Overall, a very compelling memoir which explores truth, memory and the dangers of conspiracy theories.
informative
reflective
tense
fast-paced
What I will remember about the memoir will not be the author's story, or the men who made her question the veracity of her recollections. What I will remember about this memoir will be its format: How Viren lays out her narrative chronologically, but this include correcting things that both author and reader took for granted were true. You see this book is also about the writing of Viren's story; it is about this book; and as Viren interviewed participants and went through the fact-checking stage she discovered that her recollection wasn't always accurate. This glimpse into the memoir-writing process in a book that is not a manual for writing memoirs was refreshing, as is the fact that the author is comfortable enough admitting she was wrong about things.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
medium-paced
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Very well-written and heavily researched, but the overall message got a little lost for me. I think the intention was 1. To discuss truth as a concept and reflect on how memories and consequently, memoir are always merely versions of truth and 2. To address the role conspiracy and false narratives play in today’s culture and society. However, I felt like this got convoluted with the writer’s insistence on carrying out two (at times, rightful) vendettas against characters in her life who had very little to do with each other. I realize that’s part of the point of the “a memoir in two stories” note on the cover, so perhaps it’s just that the structure and storytelling in this book didn’t land for me.
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
The tellings of both stories in this book were compelling and engaging in the first half to two-thirds. Once the investigation was concluded though the book lost a lot of interest for me. The final third especially felt like it dragged on and lost the potency of its message.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Antisemitism, Sexual harassment
Minor: Drug use, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry