Robb Forman Dew The Truth of the Matter

The Truth of the Matter

Robb Forman Dew

Little, Brown, Nov 2005, $24.95, 336 pp.

ISBN: 0316890049

In Washburn, Ohio, as WWII rages overseas, widow Agnes Scofield, who lost her husband Warren in a car accident that she believes was vehicular suicide over a decade earlier, has raised their four children, now adults relying on her low schoolteacher's wages. She hides her feelings from everyone especially her four children.

However, the war is coming home to Agnes as her three sons (actually two sons and a brother whom she raised as her child) join the military, and her daughter travels to DC. Feeling lonely she begins an affair with long time neighbor Will, but that provides her little if any warmth. By 1947, her kids have come back to town with spouses, leading to her missing the solitude of the war years, although she loves her children and grandchildren.

The interesting 1940's THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER starts a decade after the delightful THE EVIDENCE AGAINST HER (Warren and to a lesser degree Agnes were key players in that historical), but is a stand alone tale. The character driven storyline focuses on Agnes, who distances herself from people as she holds herself culpable for the death of her older spouse back in 1930. Readers follow her as she lives a quiet tepid life, that some would say is not living at all, until her extended family horde return to Washburn following the war. No conflict occurs, even when her daughter and her former lover match up, or her brother she raised hooks up with a neighbor in what might be incest. Like the apathetic lead protagonist, the storyline lacks tension, though it provides a solid spotlight on a small town in the Midwest during, and after WW II.

Harriet Klausner