The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships

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It is out of that void that Diaz’s novel leaps, cutting through the bright false stories around it, and asking it plain: whose voice is being heard just by virtue of being loud, and whose voice is stiffened into silence in the violent aftermath? Whose story is being foregrounded, and whose material presence is only dimly perceived or otherwise obscured from view altogether? Whose authoritative gaze is controlling these narratives—what do they reinforce, and what do they consistently fail to see? More important: how does our perception—our too-often easy uncritical acceptance—of what is truth and what is fiction shape our knowledge of ourselves and of the world at large? Way to go there! Because these are such loaded questions. And this has been a theme I have been struggling with all my life. And it is very hard to find honest, humble, intelligent and introspective books about this. Work on trying to become a better person and operate closer to your potential than getting bogged down in nonsense

There is though a lot to like in the novel in terms of its concept – both at a macro and more micro level.I'd probably have to write for days to articulate everything that was so amazing about this book. Neil's transformation within the book, and his vulnerability throughout were completely enlightening for me. This is a lively and well-written book by authors who know the field well and explain difficult ideas clearly and efficiently."—Matti Eklund, Cornell University This wants to be the Citizen Kane of books and it was pretty close to achieving it. Thematically, it was a success in seeding the doubt in that old story about how a gifted man got to build his empire. Centuries ago, women who were overtly sexual were likely to be burned as witched at the stake, as they were thought to be in league with the devil. Five centuries later, we've come a long way. Instead of calling them witches and burning them, we call them sluts and burn their reputations.

While reading these beautiful words, I notice the complete absence of my old feelings: suffocation from her love, doubt that I have a good heart, fear of opening our lives to each other, and anxiety about her expectations of me. Instead, every word rings like truth. Neither haunted by the past nor worried about the future, I’m finally grateful for the present.” Da non credere. Gli eventi immaginari in quell’opera di finzione ora, nel mondo reale, hanno una presenza più forte dei fatti autentici della mia vita.This book opened me up to the true meaning of vulnerability, and the fact that not many people ever truly become an adult. This book also gave me a true appreciation of what it takes to love- it is far more about becoming whole yourself than to partake in an exhaustive search to find the exact right person that meets every need in every way. At the same time the author wanted to examine the other definition of Trust and in particular the idea of the trust that it is implicit in fiction and reading “Reading is always an act of trust. Whenever we read anything, from a novel to the label on a prescription bottle, trust is involved. That trust is based on tacit contracts whose clauses I wanted to encourage the reader to reconsider. As you read Trust and move forward from one section to the next, it becomes clear that the book is asking you to question the assumptions with which you walk into a text.” But the main lesson seems to be that humans are never happy and no culturally-subjective sexual mores ever make people happy. Every instinct is contradictory and hypocritical and we will never ever figure it out in the end. So fine, that is what it is.