Truth According to Us (Barrows)

The Truth According to Us 
Annie Barrow, 2015
Random House
512 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780385342940


Summary
A wise, witty, and exuberant novel that illuminates the power of loyalty and forgiveness, memory and truth, and the courage it takes to do what’s right.

Annie Barrows once again evokes the charm and eccentricity of a small town filled with extraordinary characters. Her new novel, The Truth According to Us, brings to life an inquisitive young girl, her beloved aunt, and the alluring visitor who changes the course of their destiny forever.

In the summer of 1938, Layla Beck’s father, a United States senator, cuts off her allowance and demands that she find employment on the Federal Writers’ Project, a New Deal jobs program. Within days, Layla finds herself far from her accustomed social whirl, assigned to cover the history of the remote mill town of Macedonia, West Virginia, and destined, in her opinion, to go completely mad with boredom.

But once she secures a room in the home of the unconventional Romeyn family, she is drawn into their complex world and soon discovers that the truth of the town is entangled in the thorny past of the Romeyn dynasty.

At the Romeyn house, twelve-year-old Willa is desperate to learn everything in her quest to acquire her favorite virtues of ferocity and devotion. It becomes a search that leads her into a thicket of mysteries, including the questionable business that occupies her charismatic father and the reason her adored aunt Jottie remains unmarried.

Layla’s arrival strikes a match to the family veneer, bringing to light buried secrets that will tell a new tale about the Romeyns. As Willa peels back the layers of her family’s past, and Layla delves deeper into town legend, everyone involved is transformed—and their personal histories completely rewritten. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—1962
• Raised—San Anselmo, California
• Education—B.A., University of California-Berkeley; M.F.A., Mills College
• Currently—lives in Northern California


Annie Barrows was born in 1962 in San Diego, California, but quickly moved to a small town called San Anselmo in the San Francisco Bay Area. She spent most of her childhood at the library. She wouldn’t leave, so they hired her to shelve books at the age of twelve.

Annie attended UC Berkeley and received a B. A. in Medieval History. She knows more than the average person about 3rd century saints. Under the impression that a career in publishing meant she’d get to read a lot, Annie became a proofreader at an art magazine and later an editor at a textbook publishing company.

In 1988, Chronicle Books hired Annie as an editorial assistant, from which platform she became successively assistant editor, managing editor, Editor, and Senior Editor. Somewhere in this trajectory, she acquired Griffin & Sabine, Chronicle’s first New York Times best seller.

In 1996, Annie received her Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Mills College and had a baby, a confluence of events that persuaded her to leave editorial work and move into writing. She wrote several non-fiction books on topics ranging from fortune-telling to opera before turning her attention to children’s books.

In 2006, the first book in her children’s series, Ivy + Bean was published. This title, an ALA Notable Book for 2007, was followed by nine others. The Ivy + Bean series appears with some regularity on the New York Times best-seller list and a number of other national best-seller lists. The Ivy + Bean books have been translated into 14 languages; in 2013 Ivy + Bean: The Musical premiered in the San Francisco Bay Area. A novel for older children, The Magic Half, was published in 2008. Its sequel, Magic in the Mix, came out in 2014.

In addition to her children’s books, Annie is the co-author, with her aunt Mary Ann Shaffer, of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which was published by The Dial Press in 2008. A New York Times best-seller, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society has been published in 37 countries and 32 languages.

Annie lives in Northern California with her husband and two daughters. (From the author's website.)

Book Reviews
[As] delightfully eccentric as Guernsey yet refreshingly different.... It’s an epic but intimate family novel with richly imagined characters, an intriguing plot and the social sensibilities you would expect of a story set in the South.... If Guernsey is a tribute to the power of books, The Truth According to Us is a testament to the toxicity of secrets.... Just as we did in Guernsey, we empathize with the characters as if they’re our neighbors.... Macedonia is a great place to spend some time this summer. The temperatures are soaring, but it’s nothing compared to the heat generated by this sizzling story.
Washington Post


Annie Barrows creates a worthy successor to Lee’s beloved Scout Finch.... The Truth According to Us has all the characteristics of a great summer read: A plot that makes you want to keep turning the pages; a setting that makes you feel like you’re inhabiting another time and place; and characters who become people you’re sad to leave behind—and thus who always stay with you. As Jottie tells Willa at the beginning of the book, the "Macedonian virtues" are ferocity and devotion. The Truth According to Us is the sort of book that inspires both.
Miami Herald


It takes a brave author to make the heroine of a new novel an observant and feisty girl . . . like Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird.... But Barrows...has created a believable and touching character in Willa.
USA Today


[A] heartwarming coming-of-age novel [that] sparkles with folksy depictions of a tight-knit family and life in a small town.... In a novel full of richly drawn, memorable characters, bright, feisty Willa is the standout.... Add The Truth According to Us to the stack of repeat-worthy literary pleasures.
Seattle Times


A big, juicy family saga with warm humor and tragic twists, Truth is lively and engaging.... The story gets more and more absorbing as it moves briskly along.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch


A pleasant summer read.... There is much to recommend this book: The characters are engaging, the historical details appear thorough and accurate, and there are sufficient conflicts and plot twists to render a compelling story.
Roanoke Times


Some characters...fail to live up to their initial promise; some plot points are developed and then dropped abruptly. Nevertheless, Barrows does capture the interior life of her primary characters in this portrait of a town on the border between the past and present.
Publishers Weekly


Barrows follows up The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society with a small-town story filled with big characters.... A warm family novel of love, history, truth, and hope that is a solid fit for fans of Lee Smith and Paula McLain.
Library Journal


Barrows has crafted a luminous coming-of-age tale that is sure to captivate her grown-up audience. Against a lively historical setting, the joys and hardships of the rollicking Romeyn family will keep readers eagerly turning pages.
BookPage


The ironic contrast between Macedonia's official and actual history is played to the hilt, [but] this unique corner of Americana...is re-created...vividly.... Undeniably entertaining but as slow-moving as a steamy Macedonian summer.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
1. Early in The Truth According to Us, Willa resolves to acquire the virtues of "ferocity and devotion." Do you concur that these are, actually, virtues? Which of the characters in The Truth According to Us possesses them? Do you know anyone who does?

2. Much of the story of The Truth According to Us revolves around events that occurred when Jottie, Felix, Vause, and Sol were children and teenagers. Do you think the author believes that character is essentially unchanging from childhood to adulthood? Do you agree? Have you changed in essence from your childhood self?

3. The Truth According to Us is set in a small town where everyone seems to know everyone else. Have you ever lived in a situation like that? Would you find living in Macedonia appealing or stifling? With our multiple forms of instantaneous communication, it could be said that the entire world has become a small town. Do you agree? Do you think we live in a more or less anonymous world now?

4. Felix Romeyn is undoubtedly a flawed character. Sol McKubin is, by most standards, a far more honorable person. And yet Jottie speaks of "...her growing certainty that if Sol had been in Felix’s place, he would, after a time, have come to believe that what he told her was the truth." Do you agree? If so, which man is more honorable?

5. Of all the characters in The Truth According to Us, Layla Beck may be the one that changes the most. In her final letter to her father, she says that she’s learned that "ignoring the past is the act of a fool." What is she referring to? Discuss how the lessons she’s learned are revealed in the differences between her relationship with Felix and that with Emmett.

6. While The Truth According to Us is not an epistolary novel, there are many letters from Layla’s various correspondences woven throughout the narrative. How did these letters contribute to your understanding of her character, and to the story as a whole? Are there any letters that really stand out in your memory? Why do you think that is?

7. Is Felix a good father? Why or why not?

8. Author Annie Barrows has said, with regard to setting her novel in 1938, "The second world war looms so large in our perception of our individual selves—and even larger in our perception of America’s identity—that it takes a massive feat of imagination to remove it, or block it out, even very temporarily. To catch a glimpse of a small town in America, not 'before the War,' or even 'before people realized War was inevitable,' but without the inevitability—well, it’s nearly impossible." Discuss the historical events that have marked your time. Do you think that we, like the characters in The Truth According to Us, are facing a major pivot point in our national identity? What do you predict it to be?

9. At one point, Willa’s Uncle Emmett advises her "Don’t ask questions if you’re not going to like the answers." He clarifies that she should ask herself whether the answer could endanger something that’s precious to her, and if so, refrain from asking. Willa ignores his advice entirely, but would it have been better—for her and everyone else—if she had taken it? Have you ever regretted your own curiosity?

10. The possibility of knowing the truth about the past is a central preoccupation of The Truth According to Us. Layla says that "if history were defined as only those stories that could be absolutely verified, we’d have no history at all." Do you agree? Do you think that Layla still believes this at the end of the summer?

11. Of all the characters in The Truth According to Us, with whom do you most identify and why?

12. The sisterly bond between Jottie, Mae, and Minerva is intimate and powerful, with Mae and Minerva choosing to live under the same roof during the week, away from their husbands, because "the two of them can’t stand to be apart…they found out they were miserable without each other." In contrast, the relationship between the two Romeyn brothers is tense. What do you think of this distinction? How does the presence of strong feminine companionship impact this story? How does this model of loyalty and devotion affect the relationship between young Willa and Bird?

13. The Truth According to Us is broken up into multiple different perspectives, blending young and old voices with epistolary fragments and flashbacks. How do these varied viewpoints contribute to characterization and development in the story? How do they deepen our connection to these characters?(Questions issued by the publisher.)

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