THE TROUBLE WITH THE TRUTH is a touching story, sometimes
funny, often sad, told by Lucresse Briard, motherless,
living with a very nomadic and unconventional family. It's
the late 1920's and while others are struggling
financially
the Briards are blessed financially. Walter Briard
describes himself as a merchant. He has a roving business
and sells art objects, junk shop specials and makes
investments. They move constantly. Brother, Ben, a year
older than Lucresse has no problems with adjusting, as he
is
always busy preparing to reach his dreams of becoming an
actor.
Fred their houseman, is "like an old woman" and takes
care of everything for the family. He is the
housekeeper,
nanny, manager, and best of all he loves to don the
chauffeurs cap and uniform and drive them anywhere. He
adores Lucresse and Ben and worships Walter.
Lucresse is always the new girl and tries hard to be
accepted. She never is and it is time to move again. She
tries to lie and create a new persona for herself and that
too, is a failure. Her father tries to help her adjust at
every move, by throwing her a birthday party and inviting
her new classmates. No matter what month it is makes no
difference even it is the third time that year, he still
has
her party. But she never makes close friends who she can
ask all those questions about growing up that she has no
answers to. How will she ever find out her place in life
when she never stays in one place long enough?
Their father never took them to theme parks. Instead he
took them to plays and the opera. He did not read his
children Dr. Seuss but instead introduced them to Chaucer
and Tolstoy. He was, I think, a wonderful father.
THE TROUBLE WITH THE TRUTH reads like a collection of
short stories. How
Lucresse becomes a woman after being a lost little girl
who
struggled to discover who she is is an enjoyable journey.
Many funny events had me laughing. Her learning to play a
piano in two days was hilarious. Walter was my favorite
character. He was relaxed and objective in dealing with
his
children, never bound by or conforming to convention. His
last words to Lucresse were, "People can only tell the
truth as they see it." In the end, Lucresse knows her
father loved her, she finds her own truths, marries and
has
three children. THE TROUBLE WITH THE TRUTH is a really
sweet read.
Set in the 1930s, this poignant, funny, and utterly
original novel tells the story of one lost girl’s
struggle for truth, identity, and understanding amidst
her family’s nomadic, unconventional lifestyle.
What’s the right way to behave, to think, to feel—if
you’re always the new girl? How do you navigate life when
you’re continually on the move? Do you lie? How do you
even know if you’re lying? What’s the truth anyway?
It’s 1928 and nine-year-old Lucresse Briard is trying to
make sense of life and the jumbled, often challenging
family it’s handed her: a single art-dealer father who
thinks nothing of moving from place to place; her
brother, Ben, who succeeds in any situation and seems
destined for stardom; and their houseman, Fred, who acts
like an old woman. As Lucresse advances through childhood
to adolescence, she goes from telling wild lies for
attention to desperately seeking the truth of who she is
as a sophistication-craving teenager in the 1930s.
Told from Lucresse’s perspective as a grown woman, The
Trouble with the Truth transcends its time in the late
1920s and ’30s, and weaves the story we all live of
struggling to learn who we are and the truth behind this
human journey.
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