The Whole Truth
The Whole Truth
Jim Murdoch (author)
Product Description
This volume contains two novels, Living with the Truth and its sequel Stranger than Fiction and is only available in electronic formats.
Jonathan Payne is a jaded bookseller at the end of a wasted life which has been spent in a dull north England seaside town. He could be an everyman, but seems to have missed the boat somewhere. He's both distastefully pathetic and oddly sympathetic. A passive character, he has been happy to read about life without experiencing either great joy or great despair. If Death were to knock on his door it wouldn’t trouble him greatly.
The knock comes. Only it’s not Death. It’s the truth. Literally. The human personification of truth.
Truth proves to be a likeable, if infuriating, character with a novel mode of expression: “glib dipped in eloquence and then rolled in a coating of irony,” to quote one reviewer. He knows everything and has no qualms revealing intimate details of lives of the people who cross his path while he’s with Jonathan. He’s quite indiscriminate. The same reviewer described him as “one of the most endearing antagonists I have come across.” Comparisons with Peter Cook’s devil in Bedazzled are not unreasonable.
Over the course of the two novels Jonathan learns what he's missed out on in life, what other people think and the true nature of the universe which is nothing like he would have expected it to be. At the end, having learned far more than he ever wanted to know, he finds out that it's usually never too late to start again. Only sometimes it is: no Ebenezer Scrooge or George Bailey-esque turnaround for poor Jonathan.
About the Author
Jim Murdoch is a Scottish writer living just outside Glasgow. His poetry appeared regularly in small press magazines during the seventies and eighties. In the nineties he turned to prose-writing and has completed five novels and a collection of short stories. You can find out more about him on his blog, The Truth About Lies and further examples of his writing can be found on his website.
In addition to his two ‘Truth’ novels, Jim has also published a collection of poetry covering thirty years of writing, entitled This Is Not About What You Think and his third novel, Milligan and Murphy, a book inspired by the writings of Samuel Beckett, will be released as a paperback later this year.
Product Details
Ebook
File Size: 395kb (epub), 887kb (mobi), 1018kb (pdf)
Print Length: 361 pages
Publisher: Fandango Virtual (August 22, 2011)
Language: English
epub edition
ISBN-10: 0-9550636-8-X
ISBN-13: 978-0-9550636-8-8
EAN: 9780955063688
mobi edition
ISBN-10: 0-9550636-9-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-9550636-9-5
EAN: 9780955063695
Available at Smashwords.
About the Genre
The genre is a hard one. This quote from the author Kay Sexton, talking about the first novel probably nails it:
“[T]his is one of those novels that bookshops must hate: not 'hard' enough to be spec fic, not 'weird' enough to be fantasy, too realistic for the humour section and yet too humorous to shelve easily with the lit fic. And that, I suspect is going to prove to be its charm; for those who do read it, it's a singular take on the world, and it will either resonate with you or leave you cold. […] But I can recommend that you try it — if you like distinctive fiction that rings no bells and blows no whistles but creeps up on you with its absurdities, this book will satisfy you, as it did me.”
She did slightly better with the sequel:
“I tried to come up with one of those pithy one-liners that you are supposed to use to encapsulate a project for the movie industry (which is popularly supposed not to be able to cope with more than a sentence of information at a time) and what I decided on was Alan Bennett meets Douglas Adams! [...] I loved it.”
Reviews
Living with the Truth
Conceptually, and in tone and texture, the story is wonderful, for those who enjoy literary works of the dark and penitent, peppered with sarcasm variety, which I do. — Cheryl Anne Gardner
[T]he most stylish, thoughtful and downright original novel I had read for a long time. — Guy Fraser-Sampson
Jim Murdoch's debut is an intelligent, funny and moving novel that any discerning reader should enjoy. — Steve Kane
Jim Murdoch has created a fascinating novel that has deep meaning beyond its face value. — Inkweaver Review
Stranger than Fiction
[P]erhaps each reader will come to it differently, but what I did find was that much in this book could be taken in any of a number of ways. It was possible at times to see it as metaphor, parable, maybe allegory. No doubt you could read nothing into it and just enjoy what would then be a rather far-fetched story. [...] I do believe it not impossible to imagine a cult following somewhere down the road one day. — Dave King
Stranger than Fiction might be served up with humour and filled with bizarre situations but, at its core, it is a moral tale and Murdoch's deceptively simple prose is perfect for the story he tells. — Sam Sattler
I tried to come up with one of those pithy one-liners that you are supposed to use to encapsulate a project for the movie industry (which is popularly supposed not to be able to cope with more than a sentence of information at a time) and what I decided on was Alan Bennett meets Douglas Adams! [...] I loved it. — Kay Sexton
