Report
from U3A Reading Group
The
Reading Group’s latest book was Truth to Tell by Mavis Cheek. The
novel follows Nina Porter, comfortable middle class mother of 2 grown
up children who have now left home, wife of Robert and part-time
researcher for author Bruno after her decision to start telling only
the truth. No more little white lies for anyone!
Nina’s
action is brought on by her husband’s repeated rants at public
figures in the media who either simply don’t tell the truth or fudge
it to suit their purposes. Her fist major step towards honesty is to
announce to her husband that she will not be accompanying him on the
firm’s annual jaunt to Florida. It may be all expenses paid but
she detests these trips and it’s time to say so. I think she
secretly hopes Robert will heave a sigh of relief and agree with her
but in the current economic climate he can’t see the sense of
putting his job in peril so off he goes to Florida.
This
gives Nina a great deal of food for thought but her author boss Bruno
immediately demands her presence in Venice to do some research for
his next book. The subject of this research is uncomfortably
relevant to Nina’s truth-telling dilemma, as is her meeting with a
charming if somewhat sinister elderly Venetian. Nina’s decision
also has major repercussions for her relationships with other people
in her life, namely her best friend, her mother and her daughter.
Members
of the group generally enjoyed the book as a light-hearted read and
those who had visited Venice thought the author had evoked the city
very well but we only felt able to give the book 5 out of ten.
