TRUTH AND OTHER LIES
by Maggie Smith
A successful journalist with a dark secret mentors an ambitious young reporter in this debut novel.
After an embarrassing career misstep and ugly breakup, 25-year-old Megan Barnes flees New York City and heads back home to the Chicago suburbs for a fresh start. But life in the Windy City isn’t without its complications. Her mother is running for Congress as a Republican, much to the dismay of her left-leaning daughter, and the single job interview Megan lands is a bust. At a rally against sexual assault, she tussles with an angry misogynist, capturing the attention of her personal hero, Jocelyn Jones, an icon of journalism “right up there with Diane Sawyer, Christiane Amanpour, and Leslie Stahl.” Soon, Megan has been hired to assist with PR for Jocelyn’s upcoming memoir, with the promise of a glowing recommendation and referral to an editor at the Chicago Tribune once the job is done. But when an anonymous Twitter user starts hinting about a scandal in Jocelyn’s past, the devoted Megan discovers there’s more to her idol than it appears. In her book, Smith spins a brisk, engrossing tale about an idealistic, occasionally naïve woman who finds her neat assumptions about the world challenged by a messy reality. Megan’s relationship with her overprotective, conservative mother is believably fraught, and her desire to find a strong female role model in Jocelyn is palpable. The author tackles weighty topics, including abortion and the right/left political divide, with grace and finesse. Despite their differences, Megan and her mother are ultimately able to find a common ground. Meanwhile, Jocelyn’s liberal bona fides can’t hide her rotten core. While the idea that a few vague tweets would prompt a full-blown “crisis which could damage” Jocelyn’s reputation and prompt a “horde of reporters” to camp out on her doorstep seems a stretch, Smith manages to sell it. Ultimately, Megan learns an important lesson for anyone, journalist or not: There’s a danger in making judgments based on feelings rather than cold, hard facts.
An engaging and topical tale of politics and journalistic ethics with a feminist slant.