The Truth of the Matter: A Novel [Hardcover]

Robb Forman Dew (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 14, 2005

Widowed years before by her husband Warren's early death in an icy morning car crash, Agnes Scofield has grown into a woman of fierce and unconquerable independence. It is the 1940s in Washburn, Ohio, and the war has finally ended. Agnes' children are returning home - from Washington, D.C., from soldiering abroad-and bringing an end to Agnes' solitude in the great old family house. And to Agnes this means that she must accustom herself once more to her children's presence, to their notions of what kind of mother she has been for all these years. Hanging over the day-to-day events of life at Scofields are Agnes' constant memories of Warren, her feelings of devotion and resentment, and her long time suspicion that his untimely departure may not have been an accident. In this meditative novel of love and trust, lust and deception, Dew illuminates the small events that make up a lifetime. She is a marvel of a writer, and her spare and precise prose builds a world of startlingly lush and vivid detail.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Dew returns to the Scofields of Washburn, Ohio, for a minutely observed, lucid and lyrical examination of family ties, the second in a trilogy (The Evidence Against Her). By the early days of WWII, widow Agnes Scofield (her husband, Warren, died in a car accident in 1930) has raised four children. Financially pressed and emotionally repressed, Agnes has learned to rely on her schoolteacher's salary, her lifelong friends Lily and Robert Butler, and her ability to keep her thoughts to herself. The Scofield household is first disrupted when the now adult children leave to join the war effort, and then again when they return with spouses, children and ideas of their own. Dew details inner turmoil with delicacy, wit and precision; she focuses on life's ordinary moments, studying them from various points of view and revealing layers of feeling. A Fourth of July picnic gets rehashed by town gossips; family myths are traced to their unlikely origins. As Washburn's postwar expansion casts the Scofield home into shabby respectability, the Scofields likewise change with the times, and Agnes returns to the Maine vacation house of the first novel to come to terms with truths she has spent a lifetime avoiding, in a moving yet unsentimental culmination to a remarkable personal journey. (Nov.)
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From Bookmarks Magazine

An old-fashioned novel in the best sense, The Truth of the Matter follows the evolution of a complex woman from wife and mother to independence in the 1940s. Elaborate family ties, centered on Agnes's familiar emotions and changing relationships with her children, form the heart of the novel. But Truth also convincingly juxtaposes the minutiae of daily life against a panorama of wartime America. The novel's unhurried plot concerned a few critics, who cited the first half as limp. Other reviewers compared Agnes's rich characterization to her more stiffly portrayed children. Either way, critics look forward to the third installment of the Scofield family saga.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 327 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (November 14, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316890049
• ISBN-13: 978-0316890045
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,994,179 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I didn't want it to end!, November 9, 2005

By 

Mimi Barksdale "Mimi" (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Truth of the Matter: A Novel (Hardcover)

I was deeply moved by the universl truths I discovered in this book that I had never really heard talked about before: the way a family forms and grows and changes, the different roles that each stage of life within a family requires. No one writes this way about women in any fiction that is considered important except Ann Tyler's serious books. So few writers seem to consider family life particularly important, and yet everybody is shaped by their own family. This book is really very funny, too, at times,and I think the author is exploring those things that shape our lives, and that we hardly ever notice, but which are ridiculous when taken out of context. I haven't read the first book about this family, but I'm going to give it to myself for Christmas. I have only read The Family Heart by Robb Foreman Dew, which is non-fiction, but this book is wonderful, and I felt as though I knew these people so well and as if I was living their lives during the time I was reading this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Deeper than I first thought, June 12, 2006

By 

Linnette Garber (Laguna Niguel, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Truth of the Matter: A Novel (Hardcover)

As I got to the end, I realized what the whole book was about, and hope to use this information in my own life. I highly recommend this book, and The Evidence Against Her.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Continuation of The Evidence Against Her, Answering Questions Left Over, April 27, 2006

By 

FictionAddiction.NET - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Truth of the Matter: A Novel (Hardcover)

Sometimes memories are as vivid as life in real-time. This is true for Agnes Scofield, widow of Warren Scofield and mother of adult children.

Just where she stands these days is unclear but she knows she doesn't want to be pressured into marrying her lover, Will. She isn't even all that embarrassed about carrying on with him in secret.

In an old house with an adopted dog she has renamed Pup, Agnes is surrounded by people who are worried about her. Secrets unfold. Old secrets that have hidden in the hearts of family members for too long. Agnes must eventually decide whether or not to forgive and how to find the peace she is seeking.

The Truth of the Matter is a continuation of the story this author started in the novel, The Evidence Against Her. Robb Forman Dew answers any questions her fans may have regarding the characters with which she began. The Truth of the Matter is a solid effort that is worth reading.