Welcome to my review of A Book of Untruths by Miranda Doyle. I met Miranda on a life writing course and wanted to read her story, especially after she said a couple of interesting things about her life. I also was really intrigued by her idea of writing about the lies told by herself and others, so I got myself a copy and have slowly been dipping in and out around other books.
A Book of Untruths is a family story told through lies. This is a book about love, marriage, childhood, ageing, and the terrible acts we commit, remember and forget. It is about how we build a sense of ourselves through the stories we tell and the memories we shape. Shocking, invigorating and revelatory, A Book of Untruths shows that with every breath we take, another untruth may come out.
Miranda Doyle graduated with an MA from Goldsmiths in Creative and Life Writing and has been mentored through the Arts Council Escalator scheme. Her autobiographical story, ‘Autopsy’, was selected by Irvine Welsh for inclusion in the Scottish Book Trust’s Days Like This anthology, and broadcast on Radio Scotland. A Book of Untruths is her first book.
I loved the concept that this book is told through 70 ‘untruths’, each one relating to a different aspect of her life and childhood. Intermixed with this some information around our memories, how we perceive things and recall them and whether this is reliable. Also, how we will remember things from a different perspective to the other people there at the same time, for example you may remember a fight with your brother, his views on it may be quite different to your own.
This was an interesting book about Miranda’s life and her family. It’s both moving and harrowing in places, yet full of brilliant, self-depreciating humour. It’s well-crafted and ironically centres around untruths from an author who is characterised as being incredibly honest. It begins with a note from her mother to say she can write whatever she wants to write, though I believe she waited until after her passing to write the book, perhaps a sign of respect.
This shows a difficult and often confusing life of growing up as the only girl in a big family where things are not always as they seem and there are many changes happening. The reflective and self-examining tone adds an extra dimension and, together with the good explanations of research Doyle has found, this is more than just your standard memoir.
A book of untruths is an engaging and thought-provoking memoir, which will leave you with questions about the nature of memory and recall and the role of storytelling.
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| Title | A Book of Untruths |
| Author | Miranda Doyle |
| Series | N/A |
| Format | Paperback |
| Page Count | 272 Pages |
| Genre | Memoir |
| Publisher | Faber and Faber |
| Release Date | 7th June 2018 |
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