City of Truth (A Harvest Book)

Rating:
Summary: The Truth Will Set You Free...
Review: This wry and gentle science fiction novella is mostly a parable about truth and its application. In the city of Veritas, eveyone goes through a coming of age rite which involves elctroshock conditioning (a la "One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest" or "A Clockwork Orange") to both remove the ability to lie and the implant the need to tell the entire truth. This makes for a fairly amusing setting in which products bear truthful names such as "Ford Sufficient, " how-to books bear such itles as "You Can Have Somewhat Better Sex," and summer camp is "Camp Ditch-the-Kids." Personal conflict seems to be more or less non-existant as everyone tells the truth and no one gets offended by it. The actual story is about Jack Sperry, an art deconstructionist and his son Toby, who catches an incurable disease. Jack's job involves examining works of art and literature from the past, ie. the "Age of Lies," and physically destroying those that represent things that aren't true, such as winged angels. Jack has read of the "healing power of the positive thinking," and wants to try it with Toby. However, since such a course of treatment is not based on anything factual, and involves lying to Toby, he must find the secret communicty of "dissemblers," who have somehow overcome their conditioning and secretly live among the normal people. This eventually leads Jack to theliteral underground of Satirev (Veritas backward, get it?), where pigs do fly, money grows on trees, and soforth. The part spent in this phantasmagoria is decidely less amusing or interesting than the city of Veritas, which is richer territory for mockery. In the end, Morrow's tale comes to the somewhat mawkish conlusion that while eveyone should have the freedom to choose whether to lie or not, only the truth can really set you free.

Rating:
Summary: Quick, biting, funny read
Review: Though Morrow is highly regarded for Towing Jehovah and its sequels, City of Truth is a little-known gem. In a city where everyone must tell the truth, parents send their children to "Camp Ditch-the-Kids." Gets a little melodramatic toward the end, but the set up alone makes this a 5-star choice. Makes my top 20 "Best Right Angle, Odd, Sort-of-SF" list.