Truth: Four Stories I Am Finally Old Enough to Tell

Ellen Douglas has crafted a memoir of sorts. This book is not so much the story of her life, but the story of the lives that came before - she probes the stories which have come down to her as "family folklore" and tries to make sense of it all. She doesn't always get right to the factual answer in each situation, but she describes her journey beautifully. For example, she talks about the illicit relationship between her grandmother's dear friend and a married distant cousin. As she writes, she makes observations regarding her recollections of these people as well as what others have told her about them. Without coming sharply and directly to the point, she send readers meandering through the collective memory of her family. It is beautifully done and the characters are made more rich because of it. In this book, Douglas does an excellent job of showing(not telling) the reader what the world was like in the Mississippi of her past. It is the perfect thoughtful book for a languid summer.

There's little I can add to the oddly perceptive blurb above, save that reading this is like having a conversation with someone wise, sensitive, and extremely thoughtful. It's quite straightforward, but still forces you to read slowly, simply because the words seem so carefully chosen. She fits more meaning into a sentence than many writers fit into --- well, pick any number of pages, chapters, volumes, etc.... It's aptly named, too. It really does seem like she's gotten as close to the truth as possible even while she's set that up as her impossible task - certainly she's presenting the truth about SOMETHING in an extremely fair and eloquent way. A pleasure to read....