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By
Jennifer Johnston.
There is Banville, Tobin, Barry, Trevor, and McGahern.....but there is also Johnston. Where some of these male literary heavyweights have shined in documenting Ireland of the 1940's & 1950's through their novels, and have received much acclaim for this, the evolved writing of Jennifer Johnston has moved through and worked with Ireland's passing times with grace.I for one listen with close attention when she has something to say through a novel and this latest one upholds her well deserved place in Irish literary fiction.
Truth or Fiction, her nineteenth novel,explores the palpable ideas of memory, age and marriage through the story of English journalist Caroline Wallace. When Caroline is dispatched by her editor to interview ninety year-old Desmond Fitzmaurice, a prolific Irish writer living in Killiney, her own life is put into context by the tumultuous relationships she discovers between Desmond, his wife and his ex-wife. He has tape recordings made over ninety years, he pushes for Caroline to listen to but all she wants to do is a standard interview for her editor and get home. Desmond's behavior towards the women in his life makes Caroline wonder if he is selfish or senile? Are his grandiose stories truth or fiction?
A handful of characters, a slow burning plot and eloquent language work like a symphony together here. This novel, like her many others,will make you use your head,your heart and your intuition. Whereas many of Johnston's contemporaries address specific ideas at a specific time in Ireland, Johnston has broached many ideas and has gone to places in her novels her contemporaries haven't dared to over the years.It is rumored to be a thinly veiled story about Johnston's own heavily private father the playwright Denis Johnston.
How is the main character Caroline's life put into context by the end of the novel? Well the story begins with a marriage proposal and you'll have to treat yourself to the book to find out the answer
Sarah
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