The Truth According to Us

The WPA writers’ project sounds like a good gig, even for a spoiled senator’s daughter in West Virginia of 1938. Board with a family in a new place, interview people, see the sights, write about it and get paid to do so. Macedonia, West Virginia is this new place, a small town in the Depression, between the World Wars, with old families, ice cream, and a sock factory. This senator’s daughter is Layla Beck, who stays with the Romeyn family on Academy Street. The father, or grandfather, was the “beloved” president of the textile mill when he was still alive, but in 1938 no one in the family works there. Felix, the father of twelve-year old Willa and her younger sister Bird, is often away. It doesn’t take long to work out that Felix is a bootlegger, in a dry town. His charm and subtle force over others lets him get whatever he wants, with a grin. He is sneaky and has a creepy habit of moving very quickly and silently; he is a monster under the surface. His sister Jottie, the girls’ aunt, raises the girls in a pretty full house. Twin aunts Mae and Minerva (I couldn’t help but think of The Simpsons) stay there during the week, but  go back to their husbands on the weekends. Somehow the family also has at least one farm that they run, in addition to running the household, but these feature little in “The Truth According to Us.”

The book’s title shows that what is believed to be true is not necessarily the truth. Layla’s assignment is to write “The History of Macedonia” for the town’s 150th anniversary. While she does her best to get everyone’s point of view, the result leads to my biggest criticism, that the book I read felt too long, and could have been trimmed down. Stories get repeated, too, taking a long time for much information to add up to form a new picture of what really happened. The mill burned down in 1920, and Felix claimed he had nothing to do with it. His best friend and favorite son of Macedonia, Vause Hamilton, was found smothered to death inside with a sack full of money, to everyone’s shock. The only person who accused Felix’s involvement was Sol (short for Solomon) McKubin, who tagged along with Vause and Felix – and Jottie. Sol wanted Jottie for himself the whole time, and when they start talking to each other again in the summer of 1938, it looks like they might get together after all. However, Felix has too much control over Jottie; Jottie also has some control over herself at the same time, and it feels like everyone is slowly tearing everyone else apart. Everyone has something dark in their past – or present, or both – giving this an edgier, more uncomfortable feel than “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,” my reason for interest in this book.

There is an interesting alternation between Willa’s first person, the third person following of Layla, and the inner thoughts and memories of Jottie. Felix, however, is the most complex, and in the end the most disturbing. Another Romeyn, the youngest uncle Emmett, also comes in and has a unique relationship with everyone mentioned above. Felix’s divorced wife, though, is all but out of the picture, and not explained very satisfactorily. There are lots of characters for a small town, and we get a little bit from each, a lot from a few, and the town’s history is written. I just felt that the book could have been edited better, and was relieved to be done and see how everything resolved.