The Nature of Truth

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book with incredible questions
Review: I am neither Latino nor Jewish, but this book has hit home with me. It is an incredible, and risky, exploration into what makes the truth, what destroys the truth, and what links the truth to evil. The moral questions in THE NATURE OF TRUTH have been with me for weeks after I read it. The book is sexy, and controversial, and opinionated, in a way most books are not. I think most books are for entertainment. This book is way beyond that, for the pursuit of questions essential to most of our lives.

Rating:
Summary: A unique contribution to American Literature
Review: I read Sergio Troncoso's novel, THE NATURE OF TRUTH, after having heard him in Dallas recently. I didn't know the author, but his reading and Q and A were impressive, and so I decided to take a chance on this author. I am glad that I did.

His novel has boldly taken not only Chicano literature, but American literature, to new territory. I thought his story, about history and philosophy, and whether and how the past should matter, was revelatory on several fronts. How we should cross borders and reach out to other communities, not only our own (I am a Chicano). How elite universities obliterate your character with the savage pursuit of the truth. How individuals, like Helmut Sanchez and Sarah Goodman (my favorite characters in this novel) are true, realistic heroes for overcoming their limitations and fears and even mistakes to reach a point of truth in their lives.

I thought the character Helmut Sanchez was particularly well-done. He is a true modern hero, complex, with dirty hands, and yet trying to do the right thing. Several scenes are just stunning in their psychological drama, and what they reveal about Helmut. I also thought Sarah Goodman, the woman from Iowa, was an excellent character for Troncoso. This writer seems to write women very well, and he should be applauded for that.

Rating:
Summary: German-Mexican exploration... interesting, but limited.
Review: I'm not sure why it is that this book has captured the attention that it has. Frankly, it feels rushed with the characters emotional decisions. While curiously the plot felt slow and somewhat cliched.

It just feels like it's written by someone who may have the story telling down too clinical. Although Tronsco is certainly a capable writer, it still felt like the writer was still learning to write. The talent just didn't sparkle for me.

Troncoso looks young in the jacket photo, so I'm assuming that it's just that. Yale professors must really be embroiled in quiet polemics and too busy with mid-term exams to intensily give themselves to the art and craft.

Of course, the German/Mexican experience of the character Helmut is an interesting sidebar to the whole thing. Granted, I am Mexican/German decent myself, with a very different perspective from this book's norm, but regardless, so some things did resonate and certainly kept me reading.

However, this is no Crime and Punishment or Frankenstein. That's where real expressions anguish and morality in fiction exist and maybe that's asking too much from a new writer. But it's a good shot, and I hope to see more from this writer.