City of Truth by James Morrow – – sci-fi

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.