Home Truths: A Deep East Texas Memory
Home Truths
 
Publisher: TCU Press, September 2011
From dealing with intrusive family members to judgmental classmates to marital bliss and misery, Gerald Duff's memoir, Home Truths: A Deep East Texas Memory, describes situations familiar to anyone who has ever lived in a small town. Experiences unfamiliar to the youths of today include growing up during World War II and the descriptions of propaganda tactics, hunting for your own meals, and dealing with the social mores of the 1950s and 1960s. Other occurences, however, such as working a summer job and the awkwardness of first dates, speak to people of every generation, young and old. Duff's talents for lies and half-truths, developed early in his life, have helped him to discover not only a hidden talent within himself, but also a future career.
Reviews of Home Truths
"Gerald Duff's stunning memoir is brilliant and remarkably compelling. His recounting of his life (and what he calls the lies he's told about it) caused me to rethink many things about the incalculable ways we treat each other and betray ourselves. And almost nothing I read does that anymore. Home Truths is a wonderful, funny, and heart-breaking novel" --Robb Forman Dew, winner of the National Book Award for Fiction
"This memoir is about how book-loving Gerald Duff survived and escaped with sensitivity and intellectual curiosity and ambition intact. It is the author's contention that people in these circumstances must believe the lies they tell about themselves and each other in order to survive the psychic wounds inflicted by this culture. Desperation is a ruinous thing. This book is honest and courageous and I recommend it to you all."--Texas Book Lover
"Duff's account of a life led against the grain in East Texas is keenly thematic, peppered with insightful accounts of the seemingly ordinary. Ably composed and strong on locale ... Duff tells a wry, astute story that offers a perceptive commentary on ... time and place."--Julie Kane, Library Journal.com

To obtain a copy of Home Truths: A Deep East Texas Memory, visit a book store near you or order online at:
Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble
TCU Press