Three Versions of the Truth

Is history truth? No -- but given a range of different persepectives of any given event, and then you may approach what is true. Kurosawa did it with Rashomon. Amy Knox Brown approaches this conceit in Three Versions of the Truth in a manner uniquely her own, crystalline in spirit and sparsely beautiful to the ear. The collection alters between long stories and short. The short pieces are brief yet richly textured. Of the longer pieces, I loved "Ray Sips a Low Quitter" -- it's a simmering story of a reckless, drunken affair between two smart people who should know better, a comparison of laws written and not and the price one pays for just standing close to the dangerous things in life that are so shiny and attractive. Another favorite was "The Slave Trade" in which Brown deftly illustrates the fragile threads that form the allegiences of our lives, the competing forces that pull on, and in the end, define us. Well done.

I just ordered this book and I can't wait to read it. I know Amy Knox Brown personally and have read many of her stories and a large amount of her novel. Her characters endure hardships in beautifully lamenting ways and we get to know them through her laconic lense. She brings you so close to her characters, that you feel uneasy, like you're spying on them from inside their closet. I don't know about the stories in this piece of work, but my money is on them being deliciously dry and genuine. Go Amy.