True Story - Kate Reed Petty

This was my tweet after finishing this book...........

'This book....I mean.....It's just.....I can't even....You won't believe.....There's so much...... Who would think...... Can you imagine.... It's so......'

It was one of the books that left you lost for words because in one sense it's not like anything you've ever read before but it's actually quite hard to pin down exactly why. It's extraordinary. So........I'll try and tell you why! 😜

 The last time I encountered lacrosse was Enid Blyton and Mallory Towers. I was only a child! So this contemporary reference to what I thought was a minority and perhaps elitist sport piqued my interest immediately. True Story begins innocently enough. Some guys on a lacrosse team being ……. assholes, actually, was what I thought. And I found myself wondering what all the fuss was about over this book. I mean it seemed like an ordinary enough book. Not a bad book but I was expecting a ‘booksplosion’.

But I read on. And, you know what? Oh, I got a booksplosion! In fact I got a multiple booksplosion!!! This book defies convention. But not in a smartarse ‘look at me, aren’t I clever’ kind of way but in a subtle ‘I’m gonna get you, reader, kinda way.’ 

Structurally diverse using straightforward narrative, drafts of application letters, film and play scripts amongst others, the variety is not merely decorative, it links salient points of the story and character descriptions quite subtly for the reader to interpret. Using multi narrations, ignoring any kind of genre identity, multi genre, I guess,  it’s story telling for the millennial age.  Where #MeToo dominates so much thinking recently, the relevance of feminism, and freer thinking about mental health issues, how an individual deals with trauma, the book is contemporary thematically. Yet enduring notions about memory, truth and abuse nestle uncomfortably alongside.  Particularly relevant in our media driven times is the considerations of truth and how perception fuels the telling of a story, regardless of the veracity of that perception.

However when a book defies convention it also defies any kind of straightforward commenting. The author has two main characters one male, one female and gets into the head of both exposing their frailties and you get a sense of them both being victims of the media exposed age we live in. Its them you root for. There are other bit players who have crucial roles to play but I engaged with Nick and Alice. I’m trying hard NOT to give anything away but I guess the thrust of the story centres around an alleged sexual assault. That’s a potent enough theme but not really anything that hasn’t been dealt with before many times in a literary medium. So why is it any different in this book? Aha, that would be telling wouldn’t it?! And I do not do spoilers. It’s in the writing and it’s in the plotting and it’s in the overall defiance!

It’s cleverly written and the reader is almost fooled into believing it’s a fairly standard plot then every so often something is thrown in that diverges so skilfully as to make you feel edgy and uneasy.The final denouement is unexpected and is one of those moments that just has you sitting back almost open mouthed in admiration for the writer has ‘won’.  For the reader, this reader anyway, who is used to employing, shall we say, some kind of experiential clairvoyance when reading, is thrown off course and I do not see how anyone could anticipate the conclusion. Which makes it all the more tantalising. 

The writing flows easily and accessibly and the momentum builds as you read, it's what I like to call a snowball book. A Prologue that gives little away in terms of plot,a story is mentioned so it's intriguing because at this early point you don't know who, why, where or when! Then you're launched straight into a film script entitled Satan's Brides which starts to perplex you because at this stage you can't understand its relationship with the prologue. Then we're ready to hit Part One and the 'asshole' guys. The rest is..........history? T'is for me!! But you guys? You need to read this. Best you make a note of this one for your TBR's. Think it might be a biggie.

I received a proof of this book from riverrun at a book event hosted by Quercus. There were four different covers to choose from. You had to complete a multi choice quiz and see whether the majority of your answers were a’s,b’s,c’s or d’s. That determined your cover. I got b’s! The blue spined cover, bottom right in the picture. A fun activity that was totally consistent with the ethos of the book.