It's strange to think I've had one of Jennifer Johnston's novels on my shelves for years, a good decade even, but it's only recently that I've felt the urge to read her work (perhaps that happens more often than I like to admit with books on my shelves). I'm sure the book I bought was based on an appealing story rather than a desire to read Johnston specifically, which is what has prompted me to read her now. Kim at Reading Matters has often praised her work, and as I like to read authors that other readers consider favorites, I went in search of some of Johnston's work. Although only a handful of her books are available here in the US from Amazon (and likely are UK editions at that--do any US publishers publish her work?), she is a well respected and even revered author in her native Ireland with a long career behind her and lengthy backlist of titles to her name--many of them award winners.
Being unsure where to start I chose Truth or Fiction, her most recent novel published in 2009, which is almost a novella being so short in length. Once again this is a story that is deceptively simple, the sort that reads so quickly that if you blink you might miss something good, so I read her over several sittings. She seems a wonderful storyteller, however; her prose is stylish yet economical and she has an ear for snappy dialogue. What struck me was how forcefully her characters came across the page yet whatever message she might be sending was done so very subtly.
At the heart of Truth or Fiction is the idea of memory and over the course of time how it creates its own truths. A London journalist is asked, told actually, to travel to Dublin to interview an aging Irish playwright and war correspondent whose formerly famous works are now fading into obscurity. Caroline Wallace's Lit Ed. wants her to go over and "stir him up a bit", maybe find a spot of gossip. This couldn't have come at a worse time as her own longstanding partner has just proposed marriage after a decade of cohabiting. Caroline is the one who's been stirred up a bit, but she goes, thinking it will be a quick and easy few meetings that will translate well into a series of articles and she is promised Desmond Fitzmaurice will share stories of his life featuring 'lots of sex and some violence'. She's doubtful.
Pushing 90 Desmond Fitzmaurice is somewhat cantankerous, very demanding, appears on the fragile and confused side yet shows an astuteness at times and briskness in mobility when he wants to. Divorced and remarried he slips out for clandestine meetings with his former wife, who he promptly decides Caroline must meet. Pamela has always liked Desmond, even loved him, but she couldn't live with him and be the wife he wanted. Scatty but independent, the theatre is her life. And it's through the theatre that he met wife number two, Anna. Both women provided children, a daughter and two sons, but relationships seem strained at best. Anna takes care of Desmond, but she seems happier in her sitting room on her own with a cup of tea and the TV. And Desmond? He is still pining after the woman who got away and died, he believes, of a broken heart. Desmond is a seriously high maintenance character.
So Desmond tells his stories, and when he's too tired to tell them he plays Caroline taped reminiscences from earlier days. But the more Caroline hears and sees the less she believes. Are his outrageous stories truth or are they fiction? The picture Caroline and the reader get of Desmond is filtered through the thoughts and observations of his family and how they act and react towards him. When all is said and done Caroline is sure she is in a house full of nutters and I was inclined to agree. Desmond and his antics were enough to try the patience of a saint let alone a woman who already has other things on her mind.
"This is not my scene, she thought, these are not my people. I am homesick. She laughed at that. She snuggled further down under the bedclothes. I can laugh at them, but I don't like them. I feel no sympathy for them. I want to go home."
I don't know much about Johnston's life, but I did read somewhere that her father was a playwright and his own biography shares a few similarities to Desmond's. I wonder if she drew on her own experiences when writing this novel. While I enjoyed Truth or Fiction greatly, I have a feeling that I have even better books ahead of me to explore. Between the library and what I have on my shelves already I have several books to choose from. As someone recommended How Many Miles to Babylon? that's where I'll head next. It has a WWI setting, so it should be a very different read. It may have taken me a while, but I'm glad I've finally read Jennifer Johnston.