City of Truth

by James K. Morrow

Truth reigns supreme in the city-state of Veritas. Not even politicians lie, and weirdly frank notices abound—such as warning: this elevator maintained by people who hate their jobs: ride at your own risk. In this dystopia of mandatory candor, every preadolescent citizen is ruthlessly conditioned, through a Skinnerian ordeal called a “brainburn,” to speak truthfully under all circumstances.

Jack Sperry wouldn’t dream of questioning the norms of Veritas; he’s happy with his life and his respectable job as a “deconstructionist,” destroying “mendacious” works of art—relics from a less honest era. But when his adored son, Toby, falls gravely ill, the truth becomes Jack’s greatest enemy. Somehow our hero must overcome his brainburn and attempt to heal his child with beautiful lies.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Dystopia, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Satire, Novella

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Born in 1947, James Kenneth Morrow has been writing fiction ever since he, as a seven-year-old living in the Philadelphia suburbs, dictated “The Story of the Dog Family” to his mother, who dutifully typed it up and bound the pages with yarn. This three-page, six-chapter fantasy is still in the author’s private archives. Upon reaching adulthood, Jim produced nine novels of speculative fiction, including the critically acclaimed Godhead Trilogy. He has won the World Fantasy Award (for Only Begotten Daughter and Towing Jehovah), the Nebula Award (for “Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge” and the novella City of Truth), and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award (for the novella Shambling Towards Hiroshima). A fulltime fiction writer, Jim makes his home in State College, Pennsylvania, with his wife, his son, an enigmatic sheepdog, and a loopy beagle. He is hard at work on a novel about Darwinism and its discontents.

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Posted at Shelf Inflicted

I was feeling a need to revisit old favorites and couldn’t resist picking up this 1992 Nebula Award winner from the library.

It was as enjoyable, humorous, smart and heartbreaking as I remembered it.

38-year-old Jack Sperry lives in Veritas, a modern city where its inhabitants all undergo a painful shock treatment known as “the burn” when they are young in order to render them unable to tell a lie. Without the little deceptions that preserve a person’s feelings, provide comfort, prevent conflicts, or make children happy (yes, there is a Santa Claus!), the world Jack lives in is an indifferent and emotionless place.

Jack gets satisfaction from his work as a “deconstructionist”, evaluating and destroying the art and literature from the “Age of Lies”. Yet, that doesn’t stop Jack from becoming interested in Martina, a “dissembler” who writes verses for greeting cards. His wife, Helen, feels they ought to turn her into the Brutality Squad for her poetic lies, but they have bigger issues to worry about.

Their young son, Toby, has been bitten by a rare rabbit and infected with the deadly Xavier’s Plague. The doctors in Veritas have told the truth, but Jack isn’t ready to give up. He doesn’t want Toby to learn the truth about his diagnosis, so he reads up on the mind-body connection in The Journal of Psychic Healing and learns that there is hope.

Jack wonders how Martina has overcome her conditioning, and wants to do so himself. He journeys underground, to the city of Satirev, where he meets others like Martina, people who engage in those deceptions that give hope, provide comfort, and make others happy. He hopes this will help Toby combat his illness.

Despite the fact there were lots of white lies and hard truths going around, this was a story about love, trust, and the strong bond between parent and child.

“Because, you see, it was like this: on his fifth birthday we’d taken Toby to the Imprisoned Animals Garden in Spinoza Borough. Fawns roamed the petting zoo at will, prancing about on their cloven hoofs, noses thrust forward in search of hand-outs. Preschoolers swarmed everywhere, feeding the creatures peanut brittle, giggling as the eager tongues stroked their palms. Whenever another person’s child laughed upon being so suckled, I was not especially moved. Whenever my own did the same, I felt something else entirely, something difficult to describe. I believe I saw the alleged God.”

Highly recommended!

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quite a roller coaster of a story. The first half is of the funniest things I've in a long while, and the second is one of the most heart-wrenching. It's set in a Utopian/Dystopian city called Veritas, where the citizens are conditioned to be unable to speak only the truth. The protagonist drives an automobile called a Plymouth Adequate, takes his son to a camp called Ditch-the-Kids, has lunch at a place called No Great Shakes where he sees the day's special is Murdered Cow Sandwich, wilted hearts of lettuce, and high-cholesterol fries, etc. His conversations with his wife and a young woman he meets to whom he feels at attraction are hilarious. Then his son gets a disease after being attacked by a rabid rabbit at camp and concludes that he must learn to be able to lie in order to convince the boy that he can recuperate, after which the story gets darker and darker, and the conclusion is very, very depressing. I was a little confused at the when and where the story was supposed to be set; it's partly like Burgess's Clockwork Orange, Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, or Moorcock's End-of-Time, but in other ways seemingly contemporary-- (Steve Carlton is mentioned as a baseball star, for example.) It's a very challenging, memorable, and thought-provoking fable, and I can see why it won a Nebula Award for Best novella after it appeared.

[Fiona Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't be fooled, readers! The first half of this novel will have you laughing out loud - it's genuinely hilarious. You may think we're dealing with a dystopian novel full of original, novel, and funny ways to lampoon the role of truth and deceit in society - and technically, sure, you're right.

But then - oh then - you will be too far in to notice that things have grown dark around the edges. All of a sudden, without perhaps quite realising it, you're reading an absolutely heartbreaking story of a man coming to terms with an unavoidable truth. And you might well find that this book which had you laughing out loud only a few short chapters ago, has now brought you to tears.

One of only a very few books that ever made me ugly-cry. I loved it.

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remember that silly romantic comedy from 2009 The Invention of Lying? If not, the basic premise was that of a world where everyone tell the truth no matter what, not even so much as a fib or prevarication, with one notable exception that gets utilized to secure lady way out of the proverbial league under traditional circumstances. Well, apparently Hollywood really is out of fresh ideas, because that one seems to be lifted straight up from this novella, which predates the movie significantly. City of Truth aka Veritas has conditioned its citizens to be...well, veracious. But for what is almost certainly a paternal love (feelings are actually quite difficult to discern in face of constant brutal honesty) one man will descend into Satirev (reverse Veritas, city below) where he can learn the ultimate skill of lying. So there you have it...a clever satire, very funny, winner of Nebula Prize, the best kind of scifi, one with relevant and relatable sociological message, a morality tale and a witty one at that. Well worth an hour or so it takes to read it. Recommended.

[James Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

According to Kant, human beings occupy a special place in creation, and morality can be summed up in one ultimate commandment of reason, or imperative, from which all duties and obligations derive. Known as the categorical imperative, it denotes an absolute, unconditional requirement that asserts its authority in all circumstances, both required and justified as an end in itself. It is best known in its first formulation: Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law. Based on this Kant asserted that lying, or deception of any kind, would be forbidden under any interpretation and in any circumstance.
Imagine a city, let us call it Veritas, where all human adults are conditioned so that they cannot tell a lie. This is the premise of James Morrow's novel City of Truth, otherwise known as Veritas. In it he explores the implications of this for Veritas society. Some of the results are very funny, as any kind of dishonesty or unsubstantiated claims are impossible. So you have cars with such names as the "Ford Sufficient" and "Plymouth Adequate", a restaurant offering "Murdered Cow Sandwich with Wilted Hearts Lettuce and High-Cholesterol Fries", a morning TV programme called "Enduring Another Day", a "Camp Ditch-The-Kids" summer camp, the "Centre for Palliative Treatment of Hopeless Diseases" and (my favourite) an illuminated sign on the cathedral: "Assuming God Exists, Jesus May Have Been His Son". The effect on interpersonal relationships is indicated by the vow at a traditional wedding ceremony: "To have and to hold, to love and to cherish, to the degree that these mischievous and sentimental abstractions possess any meaning." All those little "white lies" and "lies by omission" which lubricate relationships in our world are impossible, so a degree of frankness which we would consider brutally rude is the norm.
The protagonist of this novella, Jack Sperry, leads a simple straightforward life as a "deconstructionist", one who destroys works of art (all basically lies) for his living. His daily life in Veritas is one which is based only on the truth: "There are no metaphors in Veritas"(p 5). He takes his adequate car to his job "at the Wittgenstein Museum in Plato Borough, giving illusion its due."(p 2) When his son Toby, who is away for the summer at "Camp Ditch-the-Kids", is bit by a Rabbit and contracts a fatal disease Jack's life is turned upside-down in more ways than one. His story is a more a fable, a satirical view of the unintended consequences of being unable to lie and the way that humans who can lie deal with the accidents of living. Filled with humorous notions, phrases, and moments that create mental double-takes for the reader this novella is a delight in both its lightness and heaviness (apologies to Milan Kundera). There are lies that we tell ourselves to help us deal with the world, but this story imagines a city where you cannot do that. It is unpleasant and humorous at the same time, but, like a philosophic thought experiment, sometimes it is the best way to illustrate a complicated philosophical concept in the context of a story or situation.
James Morrow has a reputation of presenting big ideas in clever ways (for an example read his Towing Jehovah). Morrow's style has been likened to Vonnegut's, but this wry little story reminded me of Swift. City of Truth is clever in ways that will leave you thinking about the meaning of life and the nature of truth for a long time after you finish reading the book.

[Yev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jack Sperry lives in Veritas, the City of Truth. All its citizens are subjected to brainburn, which conditions them to feel excruciating pain if they say anything less than the complete truth. Jack works as a deconstructer, which means he destroys any and all lying art. He incinerates fiction, paintings, and films, demolishes statues, destroys counterfeits, and otherwise eliminates anything straying from the empirical. Truth is all the beauty one needs.

I've read eight works of short fiction by James Morrow previously and haven't particularly liked any of them. I thought this this Nebula winning satirical novella might be better based on its premise, and it definitely was, for the duration that it was satirical. That's to say that it was comedy, a rather funny one for me, but that didn't last and I didn't take the tone shift well. It was quite the ride to go through three distinct moods in a novella. Narratively the experience of the protagonist and the reader are inverted. As the protagonist falls away from their idea of truth, the reader goes from mocking satire to sincere reality. For me it was like a friend telling you a funny story that has everyone laughing that segues into a trauma dump. To which my reaction was, "What? No. Stop." I wouldn't quite call it a bait and switch, but I'd really would've preferred that it stuck to the satire. Unfortunately, what comes after is probably the heart of the story.

If the humor doesn't work for you, it did for me, and what comes after doesn't, I can't say that you should read this. Some examples are, Jack, who is married, saying to a woman he just met: "I'd like to have sex with you", after noticing how voluptuous she is, or as is later said, zaftig. After a bit she replies with, "I feel only a mild, easily controlled desire to copulate with you." As soon as he meets with his wife they discuss how wants to have sex with this new woman. I found the deadpan dialogue to be amusing. The humor carries over into the exposition as well, with brutality squad members carrying Remington Metapenises, politicians openly proclaiming their corruption, businesses being entirely transparent, and men proclaiming how much they enjoy masturbating to beatoff magazine and make no pretension to reading its articles. The government even readily admits that there's no rational reason for their troops to be where they are and continually dying, but they're going to have them keep doing it anyway.

I can appreciate it for its allegory, but that doesn't mean that I have to enjoy it. I have no doubt that its message of, as interpreted by me: You can mock how others are living all that you want, but eventually you have to face yourself and take responsibility for your own life. You can't rely upon the assurances of certainty or the comforts of delusion. Regardless of whether I agree with it in theory, let alone practice it, it's not what I want to read.

[Gideon · Rating 5 out of 5]

City of Truth is the first of what I hope will be many great book recommendations (she has Good Opinions) from my new book-best friend Lauren (as she's the only other person I interact with in a regular basis that reads books).

James Morrow's premise of a city where only the truth can be told starts as a satiric comedy. The cars have names like “Plymouth Adequate”; the protagonist's son attends “Camp Ditch-the-Kids”. However, a few chapters in, the transition to a tragedy begins. Suffice to say that nothing in fiction cuts me emotionally like fathers grieving for their children (see *Lost Boys*, *Pet Semetary*).

Morrow accomplishes a great feat of narrative also. Similes are used only as an examples of lies in chapter one, but by the fourth chapter, the narrator has passed from narrative similes to using full metaphors in his speech. His tight mask of truth has cracked, and he hasn't yet caught on.

The book is short (at under 175 pages), but Morrow packs so much in that its brevity is an asset. Lesser authors might have expanded the last few pages to a full chapter, but Morrow understands that after an emotional roller-coaster (yes, I cried, for the first time in a long while at a book) readers can connect many implied dots from action to action. It's my first book by Mr. Morrow, but I'll definitely be back (likely with Galapagos Regained; it's the one Lauren has been hyping).

[Kiki · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am frankly in disbelief how highly reviewed this novella is. From start to end, Morrow is a difficult author to stomach. The premise itself is interesting, a society where everyone must be completely truthful, but the execution is so poor it feels as though it was a half-assed excuse for terrible dialogue.

The male view in this is suffocating. From page 6, our protagonist, a married man, tells a woman he encounters in a bar that he wishes to sleep with her. The woman, knowing he is married, still flirts and is willing to sleep with him. He then returns to his wife and TELLS HER that he WANTED TO SLEEP WITH ANOTHER WOMAN. This woman then becomes a recurring character and the vehicle by which the plot progresses (hello??).

Sex becomes a recurring plot point for what feels as what is no reason other than male horniness. Other reviewers mention how the story has compelling social commentary which I find more baffling. Morrow's writing has about as much nuance as it has emotional intelligence. The terrible dystopian truth tellers are bad, but the underground liars are also bad. The world consists of moral shades of gray. If this is a revelation or thought provoking statement to anyone, I worry for the state of the world's critical thinking.

[Søren Sterzing · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eine spannende Erzählung in einer nicht näher definierten Zukunft, die die Frage aufwirft, nach welchem moralischem Kompass man leben will.

Sagt man immer die Wahrheit oder lügt man sich durchs Leben? Sind Kunst und Gefühle Lügen? Hilft letztendlich nur die Wahrheit durch schwere Zeiten?

Fragen, die das Buch nicht direkt stellt aber dennoch präsentiert, als Gedankenexperiment. Natürlich.

Das schöne ist: die Lösung dieser Aufgabe bleibt dem Leser:in überlassen.

Der Text fühlt sich manchmal - möglicherweise durch die Übersetzung - etwas blasiert und gezwungen an. Hin und wieder gibt es poetische Passagen, auf welche skurrile Beschreibung folgen die leider etwas hölzern und gezwungen wirken.

Vieles wird leider zu kurz touchiert und dann liegen gelassen. Dadurch verschenkt der Roman etwas seiner möglichen Schlagkraft. Einige Witze verpuffen leider im vorbei fliegen.
Aber.
Ein schönes lesenswertes Buch mit vielen rührenden Passagen, gerade gegen Ende kommen einen Bilder von Tom Hanks oder Robin Williams Filmen in den Kopf - Kino Anfang der 90er.

Das passt, da die Geschichte Anfang der neunziger veröffentlicht wurde. Erzählungen von Menschen die ein bisschen an ihren fesseln ziehen und dadurch überhaupt merken, dass die angebunden sind...

[AJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A somewhat humorous beginning that gets quite dark and psyche bending as you progress. A short (160 pages) but strong intro into James Morrow, I am intrigued enough by his style and his intelligent prose to pick up another of his books. Thanks for the rec, J!

[Mohammed · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the perspective of a physician, this should be mandatory reading for every high schooler. Having had many end of life discussions over my short career, I can say too many individuals find themselves too emotionally imature and uprepared to manage the care of their loved ones. This is a failure of our system in preparing our society for such common and innevitible issues rather any issue of the individual. So I was quite frustrated throughout reading the majority of the book. I saw Jack for what he was: a decent person caught completely and utterly unprepared for tragedy and grasping at any possibility of control over the situation and hoping for any alternative reality, no matter who unlikely. We see this behavior for what it is right away where even after hearing the doctor's voicemail he rushes to the dictionary hoping to find a different definition for the word "fatal" when he can surmise with extraordinary probability that this is not the case, and even if it had multiple meanings, it still doesnt make the use of the other ones more likely. I thought the moral of the story was going to actual be that lying, like any tool, can be abused, or even so beneficial it can help us defeat cancer if we just believe. Which would be the exact opposite message the general public needs to hear. Even if 1 in 1,000,000 are saved, how many hundreds of thousands did we doom to a miserable final existance when we had all the tools in our disposal to offer a palliated and merciful departure? I dont mean to reduce human life to mere math problem, but I stand strong in saying that no one reasonable operates on such non existent probabilities in any other facet of their life and to start doing so given the negative consequences that are infinitely more probable, we would be hypocritical in the most painful way. We see this consistency in logic exemplified in the parents talking to the doctor before he meets with Jack and Helen. The doctor says more testing would not help their childs leukemia but may help the parents (presumably to make them feel like they did not give up and did "everthing" possible) but surprisingly the parents decline and admit that doing so would NOT help them cope. Upon first reading this, I saw it as a desired effect of living truthfully. When a doc told them something, they trusted that the advice offered was exactly the advice they'd give out themselves had they gone through all the training and experience that he/she had gone through to arrive at such a statement. But then Jack is no where near following this logic. Even Helen admits at the end that she furtively was rooting for Jack to succeed in lying their son. Is this just variable efficacy of the burning process on different individuals or is it a message I am missing? Jacks actions did not significantly prolong or add to his sons suffering, however, it denied him two things 1) his dignity and 2) his most comforting wish. Lying for the benefit of another might be possible, however, it is almost impossible to continue to lie for someones benefit when the lie has become so flimsy or contradictory that the person begins to ask directly if indeed it is true. If someone explicity asks for the truth with clear disillusionment in their verbal and non verbal expression, it is a disgrace to continue to lie when a big part of them knows you are. In the case of end of life, loved ones can try all they want to estimate how their loved one would want to spend their last few days, and Jack did that with toys and entertainment and activities, but in the end, when his son was suffering and declining, in the end all he wanted was his mother, the one thing Jack denied him.

The book is denied a 5 star review due to the mechanics of the world not being well thought out and having too many paradoxes. Most blaring and distracting was how casual the dialogue despite needing to be much more comprehensive. For example, the question of "do you want to copulate with me" is not a simple yes or no like Jack answers. He is obviously is sexually attracted enough to her to answer yes, but also is married and does not want to betray his wife so the answer then is no. So if the answer is not going to be long and encompass all scenarios for perfect clarity, the question needs to be more specific: "do you want to copulate this moment irrespective of any consequences to your marriage?". In addition to the inaccuracy of their "truthful" thoughts and speech, they was also a strong compulsion to share damaging information where silence would not constitute a lie, which the Buring/conditioning as described would not explain. The label on the cigarettes and name for burgers are perfect examples of this. I think having characters answer yes or no and limiting the information shared in order to avoid negative consequences, without lying would have been more based in reality and more relatable for the reader since we all already do this to some extent and at some point in our lives. I also found the loss of tears and other emotions to detract from the reality of the pathophysiology of the whole premise. It seemed too unrelated to language processing to be lost as result of the burning.

One of the two most powerful quotes from the book was "even dishonesty was superior to his native city's confusion of the empiric with the true". It is powerful in that there is a difference between the observed (what we can perceive) and what is ultimately true. For example, rats chase cats, is mostly untrue. However anyone who watches cat videos has seen plently of cats run from cucumbers on the floor, let a lone the large scary sizes some rats can get. So now people are indoctrinated as to what is a truth so far as they and their immediate collection of knowledge has observed. If you we take that collection of knowledge just a few years into the internet we already find several exceptions observed. We can only imagine how all other truths would begin to fall apart if we were truly omniscient and not limited to our severly limited observations. So Veritas does not accomplish a society that deals in truths, its only their best estimate of what is true. But being unaware of this distinction, they are not as readily open to change and refining of their world view and instead are at risk of remaining ignorant, ironically.

The second quote was, "honesty without choice is slavery with a smile". We see the author bring up the importance choice plays at the end when Helen asks Jack, who is capable of lying, whether or not he had an affair. Jack answers truthfully and asks Helen if she is upset to which she says no, she would be if he lied. Clearly the message here is that telling the truth when difficult is an expression of dignity to the other person and someone like Helen clearly values someone choosing to be honest. Helen also scolds Martina for a comforting lie structured to make Helen feel better.



Summary:

Story follows a man who works for the government purging all forms of media (art, books, etc) of any thing that is not truthful. On the surface this removes the malignancy caused by lies, but there is also a significant focus not allowing metaphors, no matter how trivial. It may be seen as wasteful and confusing exercise that distracts from effective communication and an accurate progression towards the discovery and understanding of everything true in the world, be it our minds the or natural world. His child becomes infected with a Rabies like virus while at summer camp. The illness is a devastating diagnosis with terrible symptoms and most certain death. Jack cannot accept the finality of his sons iminent death and sets out to find an underground counter movement that has learned a way to reverse and decondition the burning, thus allowing adults to lie freely. His goal is to be able to assure his son that everything is okay, when they are not. He also clings onto a fringe therapy that suggests a positive mindset can overcome an seriously fatal illness. With the help of the dissemblers, he is able to celebrate everyday to his son's desires while down playing what is happening. While his son certainly enjoys a lot of it, his experience is interrupted when faced with suspicious or conflicting information, showing clearly a big part of him wants to know the truth, but is almost too afraid to push the issue. Eventually Jack sees his son suffering through the celebrations and realizes his son deserves the dignity of knowing what is happening to his body and why they are celebrating everyday. He realizes that he was lying to himself more than he was actually lying to his son.

[Jayme Pendergraft · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Sperry is a Citizen of Veritas, where everyone has been conditioned (or burned) to be unable to lie. Early on in the book, we begin to understand the type of world this is, with only "drinkable coffee" or the inability to hide your feelings. As in all dystopian societies, there is an underground protest group. When Sperry's son Toby gets sick, he decides that he'll be able to save him if he is able to convince him of the lie of hope.

This was a short little book and I'm quite impressed with Morrow's ability to fit so much into so few pages. The city of Veritas is completely and well developed, as are the main characters. As a reader, I could feel Sperry's desperation to save his son and how very much he loved him, even though he is programmed to believe love is a lie.

I can't get over how emotional this book made me. I thought I was getting into another sci fi dystopian novel, but found a novel of the love between a father and son, and characters who would do anything for one another even though they don't fully understand that feeling. I'll definitely be reading more Morrow in the future.

[Alexis DeSousa · Rating 4 out of 5]

City of Truth is a short novella (Nebula Award Winner 1992) about a city where all its citizens are "brain-burned" into telling only the truth. The citizens are always frank and honest to each other, even when it comes to things such as sexual matters, illness, marriage, etc.

City of Truth centers on Jack Sperry and his fight against the truth when his son is taken fatally ill. Jack wants to lie to his son in order to try and cure him with a miracle. In order to do so, he must become a part of society that rebels and learns to lie.

The book was a quick read for me, but I really did enjoy it. I wish that I had seen more of Jack’s son, Toby, in the story, so that I was more emotionally connected to him and his journey. The themes in this book are powerful…sometimes the truth is hard, but in the end, it might just bring you the peace you’re looking for.

It pained me to hear about all of the works of art that Jack had to destroy as part of his job! Ouch. Even fiction novels, art that was impressionist, etc. couldn’t survive their City of Truth.

(also posted on my blog alexis.desousa.cc)

[Rich Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent and poignant dystopian novel. Yeah, those two adjectives *can* go together with "dystopia". Jack Sperry lives in a world in which lying is virtually impossible - people have it ingrained in them in such a manner that even the most minor fib causes them extreme pain. But Jack has to learn how to lie, in order to be able to help his dying son, hoping for a miracle.

I hadn't realized that I had read a book by Mr. Morrow before, the kaiju-themed "Shambling Toward Hiroshima." This book is a completely different genre and style, but the writing is still way above the bar. The book had the quirkiness of a good fifties science fiction story, with modern sensibilities.

I'll definitely be on the lookout for more of Mr. Morrow's books.

[Rebecca Schwarz · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the world of this story, not only can the characters never lie, they are required to treat each other with complete candor. The result is hilarious. Within this setting, Morrow tells a story both tragic and touching. Quite a feat to pull off.

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although clever, I did not find this book funny, or scary. It provided good social commentary.

[Seant · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting concept...a city where no one lies...and one man's search for the way to lie. But a bit tedious at times.

[Howard Sneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give this book an 9 for original idea. but I rate it only a 7 for development. I think it could have been longer and it would still be a quick read
I also give the book an 7 for cohesiveness. Parts of the book were amusing but parts of it were very serious and it was hard to switch between these two extremes. So, overall I give it a 7.

SPOILERS BELOW

The start of the book caught me off guard as I was initially unsure that the proper nouns used in the protagonist's descriptions were actually the names of the places. Camp ditch the kids, booze before breakfast, and Donaldson's drinkable seem perfect satirical names for these rhings in our own society. In other words, Morrow captures what some people may feel about the institutions, circumstances, and products that we interact with on a daily basis and in so identifies the truth about what we really feel. What he feels to do is establish that these people do not find these labels humorous. I appreciated the satire in the posting about the elevator being maintained by disgruntled workers as I have often thought about how freely we trust our lives to people we don't know. But the people of veritas blandly accept these truths as facts of life. Morrow doesn't do enough to convince the reader that the towns people of veritas don't find any of these descriptions humorous.

The one truth that controls everyone in the story is that pain should be avoided. The aversion to lying is programmed by electric shock therapy. After establishing the premise, Morrow introduces the main conflict in the story: The greed and clinging to life can cause people to want lie and seek solice in delusion. Jack's search for a cure leads him to believe in things that he would have dismissed as lies in other circumstances, such as psychoneuroimmunology.

Jack seeks to embrace delusion as a way of coping with Toby's Mortality. Jack is reprogrammed in Satirev by observing that what he once thought were lies can be truths, but it is his sexual desire for Martina that finally allows his mind to accept clinging and delusion without causing him pain.

Now Jack is caught between two worlds but Morrow does not let us into Jack's mind enough for us to appreciate this schism. Jack can participate in the lies that the people of Satirev make for Toby but he is also disgusted by them. As Toby's illness progresses he sees the performances of the townspeople as disingenuous. Jack wants to provide Toby the integrity of an honest prognosis but there was not enough detail in the drama of this chapter to understand Jack's motivations and the conflicts he was facing.

Also, we don't get to see enough of what Jack realizes about his wife and other associations he has in veritas after he learns to lie. He should realize how bland their lives are. These people can never enjoy the thought of pigs flying. Even if they know that this is a ludicrous mental formation, they are unable to enjoy it in even a satirical sense.

[Gronk · Rating 2 out of 5]

A tale of two cities: Veritas where people over a certain age must tell the truth, and Satirev where people can lie. Our narrator works for Veritas, destroying our past treasures like the statue Nike of Samothrace and the film The Wizard of Oz because they are not factual. But he comes in contact with a "citizen" of Satirev and ends up deciding he needs to go there because of the incurably fatal disease his son contracts. He's done his research and knows that there is the possibility of self healing through positive thinking. But his son must not know he's contracted a fatal disease.

The biggest problems with the book:
1. The "brainburn" process for making it impossible for people in Veritas to lie is just dumb. Kids are given EST while speaking lies. (Pigs can fly, snow is hot, rats chase cats, etc) Do this 10 times and it's imprinted - you cannot lie. If Morrow hadn't explained what the Brainburn process was that'd be fine. But to concoct something so dumb is juvenile.
2. Not only can't the people in Veritas lie, they must tell the whole truth. Every little bit. You can imagine the fun conversations that ensue. Since what everyone thinks about is sex and attractiveness Morrow gives us repetitive drivel at every encounter.
3. While the whole truth must be spoken, Morrow is terribly inconsistent. He likes to give us the sex/attractiveness stuff but not everything a person normally would think comes up. Imagine every thought having to be told. Wouldn't work and wouldn't make good reading. Morrow takes the easy way out - just put the sex stuff in there. Isn't that sensible world building?
4. Satirev is home to flying pigs, hot snow, rats who chase cats, etc. It's really home to those things - they were created by Satirevians. But somehow we're to understand that those are lies. That doesn't work - because those things actually exist in Satirev. There's nothing amusing or revelatory about saying pigs can fly when there.
5. Along with being unable to lie, Veritasians cannot cry or seemingly have emotions. They are human Vulcans. Except couples still get pissed when their partner is unfaithful. How is that possible without emotions?
6. The plot just kind of withers.

The setup had potential but the author took the easy way out for cheap laughs.
How did this win the Nebula?

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Morrow is a writer after my own heart. In City of Truth, he takes an audacious idea–what if everyone always told the truth?–and uses it to show that there’s something much deeper. We learn that while truth is beautiful, it can also be incredibly ugly. And that, while lies are despicable, they also have a place. And while we learn these things, we also get to laugh at some great imagination, as what would advertising be like if it had to be truthful (I especially enjoyed the “new” Surgeon General’s warning on a pack of Canceroulettes, not to mention Camp Ditch-the-Kids). Morrow’s got a way with this; his Full Spectrum 3 story, “Daughter Earth,” contained many of the same elements: a light, humorous tone encasing a serious, yet not dull, meaning.

[Joshua Rotella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and warmly written, City of Truth explores notions of utopia and dystopia by pursuing an ideal (citizens can not lie) to an absurd and horrific degree. The consequences of this axiom lead our protagonist to pursue (naturally) the means to subvert the foundation of his society in order to achieve his own ends. The ending is bittersweet, in the fine tradition of the genre, with a dash of hope to leaven the sorrow with which the characters must live beyond the final page.

Speculative fiction authors count among their ranks innumerable novices, many initiates, a respectably conservative number of adepts, and truly few masters. James Morrow has ascended through these ranks to that loftiest pinnacle with the grace and decorum commensurate with his body of work. Few authors learn to use plain speech to communicate profound thoughts with half the skill Morrow shows here.

[Zeineb Rekik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Courte histoire de science-fiction.
Le narrateur nous emmène vers un monde que moi je trouve ennuyant, sans goût, sans aventures: la cité de vérité ou Veritas. Tout le monde est conditionné depuis l’enfance, avec un brûlage de cerveau, de ne dire que la vérité. Déjà l’idée ouvre une créativité dans les appellations (une marque de jus “rien d’extraordinaire”), les situations (un mari qui dit oui quand sa marie lui demande s’il est attiré par une femme)… Tout devient sans émotion, sans charme, on dirait que c’est plus humain.
Le narrateur décide d’aller à un centre de rehabilitation où c’est possible de réapprendre à mentir.
Je me rends compte que la majorité de ce qu’on dit, entend, achète, fait, … C’est des mensonges.
Mais c’est peut être pas grave, ça fait partie de l’expérience de la vie.

[James Frederick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This gets five stars for concept and originality. The only thing I can think of anything like it was the movie "Crazy People," with Dudley Moore.

This is a tragic comedy...or a comedic tragedy? Either way, there is some decent character development and mostly genuinely likable characters. There were some very funny bits, but the overall arc of the story is sad. The fact that I enjoyed it, nevertheless, speaks to the well-written journey.

I would definitely read another book by this author.

P.S. The author describes one of the characters as having "eyes like pickled onions." I have never heard a description like that before, but I would love to see what that looked like! There is loads of stuff in here, like that.

[Centauri · Rating 3 out of 5]

SPOILER ALERT
In the context of the world created in this novel, I do not want a world void of un-truth; there is a time to be honest, and a time not to be. I love the arts and breaking away from reality. I could not stand a world where I could not paint what I felt, or a city where my mind is burned so I am a Vulcan (pure logic and matter-of-fact).
The father wanted to break away from truth to give his child a fighting chance, but end up learning that lies only hurt in the end, no matter the reasoning. So, in effect, he learned the city of Veritas is right for ridding itself of non-truths
It was hard to get into the story, but the 2nd half picked up and it ended up being was a decent read

[Themistocles · Rating 3 out of 5]

That was quite enjoyable (well, if you find being moved to tears a-la Algernon enjoyable) book. It has a nice premise -the city of Truth- and it nicely funnels the idiosyncrasies of it into the drama that unfolds.

However, Morrow doesn't examine those idiosyncrasies in depth and after a while, if you're a bit inquisitive, cracks will start to appear as some very logical questions can't be answered. I'm all for not bringing down the fourth wall, but I couldn't help it.

Also, while the use of personal drama in the context of Truth and Lie was really nice, from some point on it felt a bit like exploitation - too easy to draw sympathy and tears, which is something I dislike.

Still, an original story and pretty nice.

[Veronica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really enjoyable. It's a fun concept for a dystopian novel and executed pretty well. It's paced pretty much perfectly and doesn't overstay its welcome at all. I felt that the "lying training" was kind of weird. Is it even a lie to say that pigs can fly if they actually do in Satirev? It's a factually true statement under the specific circumstances. That's what's interesting about this book, though. The nature of truth and its impossibility to be exactly defined. Can truth change? Is truth subjective? Or does the definition of truth itself prevent this? Will my brainwashing still prevent me from saying the objective falsehood that snow is hot even if I've just been buried in scalding hot snow? It's fun to think about

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

So you think you're an honest person that always tells the truth? Think again. On Veritas, people are physically conditioned never to lie. They say things like, "You're a pretty young fellow except for that chin". Salespeople tell customers that they can "buy it for $2 less down the street". People sign letters "Somewhat Respectfully Yours". The plot revolves around one man who wants to learn how to lie to protect his son.

City of Truth is classified as science fiction, and was a Nebula Award winner. It's satire but I don't see how it falls into the sci-fi genre. It's is funny and was a quick read, but it just didn't really do much for me.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our narrator lives in Veritas, a city where residents are so conditioned against falsehood that metaphors pain them and concepts like love are seen as suspect. When his son becomes terminally ill, he’s expected to accept it with the cynical fatalism characteristic of the city. Instead, he seeks out an underground city of people who have taught themselves to lie, hoping to save his son through the power of positive thinking, and discovers that sentimentality and blind faith have their own problems.

This is a quick, funny, touching read that’s less about truth and dishonesty than about cynicism, hope, and the ways both can be ultimately selfish and inadequate. Really glad I picked it up!

[Ryan Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the book began, I found it drolls but nothing earth-shattering, but as the book reached it back nine, I found myself deeply moved by what it had to say. Rarely do I get choked up by a science fiction novel, but something in the later stages of this novel hit me, though I sense it's because the very theme of the book's late stages is in-and-of-itself a topic which would induce emotions. The message of "neither truth nor lies are in their essence bad, but reliance on either in totality leads to failure", is a good one, and a deep one, and I can appreciate just how much Morrow packed into these slim 140 pages.

[Konrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short book, and an odd mix of humor, satire, and drama. Father who lives in the City of Truth, where no one can lie, has to travel to the city of lies to cheer up his terminally ill son. What I loved about this book is that every line is dripping with wit. Somehow a joy to read, despite the morose subject matter. The plot was forced at times, and was pushed through with many plot devices, but that's not the reason to read this book. The writing here is dense, satirical, and nearly always hilarious, but in a way that makes you think. I will definitely read it again.