City of Truth

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Summary: I¿m all right, Jack. Who cares about you?
Review: "City of Truth" is really two short stories, three if you count the brief final section. Each section is almost worth its own review, because they are so different.

City I is a description of a society where people have perfect honesty literally burned into their brains. It's incredibly funny because it contrasts so completely with our own feel-good consumer society. Politicians candidly admit that they accepted kick-backs; a salesperson tells you where to buy an item more cheaply from a competitor; restaurants sell "murdered cow" sandwiches with "wilted lettuce."

The odd thing is that the city is rather a flat, cold place. Parents critique their kids' drawings ("It's pretty ugly.") and romance is replaced by the brutal, hurtful truth. After a while, you long for someone to say "Have a nice day!" with a big smile, instead of truthfully expressing their complete indifference.

City II describes a rebel group which teaches people to lie again. The treatment involves exposing disciples to genetically-engineered impossibilities: pigs that fly, dogs that talk. Why this is supposed to help isn't entirely clear, but it enables a father to tell "kind lies" to his terminally sick child. The problem is that the boy can see that his father is lying: This is one case where honesty would be the best policy. City II is a real tear-jerker.

City III has the family leaving both the Truth Tellers and the Liars and settling for the kind of messy mix that we have: trying to tell the truth as far as possible, but making space for poetic license and white lies. That's fair enough, but there are no revelations here. Most of us feel this way already.

Consider the five stars all for the first section and well worth them.

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Summary: Truly a Great Story
Review: A dark comedy to be sure. This book reminded me a lot of A Clockwork Orange, in the way that the people were conditioned to abhor untruthfullness to any degree. Unfortunately this includes any work of art, and fiction. Of course that's what makes this so absurdly funny. For a person to feel compelled to tell his boss -exactly- why he was late for work, or what you really think of a childs drawing, creates some very funny scenes indeed. If Veritas is funny in it's way of strict adherence to truth, than Satirev is funny for exactly the opposite reasons. When lies are brought to life you are bound for comical moments. This is a great book to read if you haven't read anything worthwhile for some time and just want a good quick fix.

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Summary: Simply amazing! (And that's the truth!)
Review: A simply timeless look into the dangers of both unabashed truth and the power of lies. I could not put this book down and finished it easily in one day. It's bitingly funny with the right edge to it that it needs to get its message across. I'd reccomend City of Truth to anybody and personally I am now very interested in reading James Morrow's other works.

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Summary: Loved this book! A quick read u can't put down
Review: A strangly humorous story of Veritas, the City of Truth. No one can lie here, always telling the whole truth, no matter how drool or offensive it is. One of the few books i just couldn't put down! I've already read it 3 times.

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Summary: An interesting picture of life if only truth be told.
Review: Although I am not a science fiction fan, I agree with Kirkus that City of Truth by James Morrow is a thoroughly enjoyable, highly descriptive story of what it would be like to live in a city that told nothing but the truth. Mr. Morrow has concocted a city inhabited by nasty people who believe that believe that telling the truth is the only way to live. Kirkus's opinion that the harshness of this life deprives the residents of Veritas of any fun in life; it circumvents their ability to enjoy themselves. I completely agree. By avoiding personal conflicts, this town restricts itself to a one-sided existence - that of telling the truth at all costs.

Reviews for the City of Truth are mixed but the majority seem to feel the same as I: "while humerous, the novel presents a sad picture of a city that is unable to lie, even if means being offensive (Chuck McAllister, Georgia). The book covers some heavy topics such as: is it acceptable to lie and if so when. Even though the novel may be "bitingly funny with the edge to get its message agross (a New York Review), the novel also has its' serious side. Working as a deconstructionist, Jack Sperry, in an attempt to preserve the truth, is living a lie by performing a job not of his choosing. Rather than promoting the arts he love, he is destroying them because they would allow Veritasians to witness a society that allowed to express itself freely. He is also not being true to himself in his relationship with his family. By not being able to say "I love you" or "I care for you" because "love can be construed as a "misused notion, a one work lie." By not being able to admit to or talk about their feelings is acting out a lie. Complete honesty would be to admit his true feelings for Helen and Toby. The novella raises the question "Is lying ever justified?" In some cases to avoid telling the truth helps to ward off a difficult situation, as it does when Jack tries to maintain Toby's high spirits. In this case, the truth needed to be told wven though Toby was upset with the news. As stated previously, therefore, my sentiments appear to be in line with what most other readers think. It is truly an enjoyable, easy novel to read and understand.

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Summary: I haven't been this moved by a book in a long time...
Review: Although the subject matter does cut amazingly close to home with me, Morrow's City Of Truth is an amazingly powerful look at truth.

In short it is about a man living in a city where everyone has been conditioned to tell the truth, but a freak animal attack has struck his son with a fatal disease. He feels his only hope is to learn to lie and keep his son in good spirits, thus fighting off the disease with mind-over-body.

Although there is so much satire in this book that you could fill a dozen sig files with it, Morrow really gives us a hard look at the need for a median between lies and truths and when to use either...

I read the book in about 3 or 4 hours, I could not put it down, I was in tears at the end...

This is definitely a book I will start recomending to everyone, and I am now very interested in Morrow's other work.

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Summary: City of Truth--a Brilliant Satire
Review: City of Truth is an amazing study of one of the most important issues our society and every member of our society faces, the issue of honesty. James Morrow presents a model of a city, Utopian city where its inhabitants are conditioned to tell the truth. For the author, it is a perfect opportunity to speculate on the origins and bases of our behavior; specifically he adresses the questions of why should we be honest? When is it acceptable or right to tell a lie? Should we decide or even have such an opportunity to determine whether to tell the truth or to lie? For the reader, the novel presents an absolute answer that dishonesty is never justified.

The exaggeration and satire skillfully applied to the fantastic City of Truth, carefully reveal the faults and contoroversies of our own society. The society where controversies and disputes are reduced to slogans, the society where we often express the need to be lied to, the society where we tolerate and even promote dishonesty. James Morrow attacks the issue by comparing the two sides of the argument. He presents two worlds-the "proper" world of truth and the underground, the opposing factor-the world of illusion or dishonesty. Both worlds are extreme-the City of Truth wouldn't tolerate art, poetry, imagintion, it is almost brutal and simple. On the other hand, the underground city is not necessarily the city where one lies all the time, but it is a city of illusion where dream and fantasy preveils. It is a city where the borderline between reality and imagination has been shed. But there is also a neutral world, a world where father is conditioned to tell the truth; he does so in reference to every aspect of his life except his son.

Thus, all of the sides of the argument are presented to the judgement of the author and he chooses one side for the reader. The father finally reveals the fact of the incurable disease and death approaching to his son. Toby's condition did not improve as a result of his father's confession. The truth removed his anxiety, uncertainty, fear and frustration; his death was "humane," that is he knew what had happen to him, he could take responsibility for his words and his interactions with others. All the "wishful thinkers" and "positive influences" and "support groups" as well as the shower of presents and smiles in this case were just a safety device. This fence of comfort and stability was ment not as much for Toby as it was for his father.

At the end, the author offers a solution for the issues presented. Although we should have a choice of whether to lie or to tell the truth, it is never right to lie. Our dishonesty comes from the need of comfort, safety, and acceptance. Lying is often an illusion, facade, and cover with which we separate ourselves from the outside world and its problems; it is often the result of ignorance or pure lazinesss that we choose to lie. Being honest is challenging but it can be done, and it can only be done by free choice.

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Summary: Empirical or True
Review: Here is an initially sharp social satire set in a city where you must tell the truth and lies are against the law. The authorities have literally scared lying out of the population. The book starts hilariously with the citizens of Veritas telling it like it is - ending letters with "yours up to a point" and eating at a restaurant called Booze Before Breakfast. It turns out that Veritas is really obsessed with empiricism (based only on observation and rules) rather than the much deeper "truths" of life. Morrow brings up this point very briefly in chapter 5, but unfortunately fails to expand on this intriguing theme. After that brief insight, the book becomes nonsensical and melodramatic, as the main character escapes to the secret city of Satirev to deal with the real truth about his son's fatal illness. The city of Satirev, in which people are allowed to lie but ultimately are more truthful, is a ridiculous construct that is hard to take seriously, while the story devolves into sentimentality rather than the sharp social observation that was hinted at earlier. Morrow's examination of the real meaning of truth, even if lying is necessary to achieve it, ultimately does not materialize even though he was really onto something big for a while.

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Summary: Funny, sad, and thought provoking.
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The way Morrow described the city of Veritas made it seem almost possible. It is a place I'd love to spend some time in order to learn all the quirky and satiric names they've given things.

If Veritas was weird, Satirev was surreal. Flying pigs, rivers of root beer, burning snow, money growing on trees...the oddities never stop. Sets a nice diversity of scene for the book...kind of like Shakespeare does in many of his plays (normal stuff happens in the home, magical stuff happens in the forest).

But the greatest thing about this book is the characterization. The main character, Jack Sperry, is willing to do whatever it takes to save his son. He leaves his wife, goes against his tortuos conditioning in order to lie to his son about his condition and keep the kid's spirits up.

Despite all the crazy scenery and funny truths in this story, it's really a novella about family and love and the bond between parents and children. Made me laugh and tugged my heart strings a little as well.

Rating:
Summary: Funny, sad, and thought provoking.
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The way Morrow described the city of Veritas made it seem almost possible. It is a place I'd love to spend some time in order to learn all the quirky and satiric names they've given things.

If Veritas was weird, Satirev was surreal. Flying pigs, rivers of root beer, burning snow, money growing on trees...the oddities never stop. Sets a nice diversity of scene for the book...kind of like Shakespeare does in many of his plays (normal stuff happens in the home, magical stuff happens in the forest).

But the greatest thing about this book is the characterization. The main character, Jack Sperry, is willing to do whatever it takes to save his son. He leaves his wife, goes against his tortuos conditioning in order to lie to his son about his condition and keep the kid's spirits up.

Despite all the crazy scenery and funny truths in this story, it's really a novella about family and love and the bond between parents and children. Made me laugh and tugged my heart strings a little as well.