Sworn Testimony

Couldn't. Put. It. Down.

Anita Shreve's novel, Testimony, is haunting, suspensful, compelling, and heart-wrenching.

I knew each character. As in, in my mind, they were personally acquainted with me, and I cared about what happened, and even when I began to realize the outcome, what was about to happen, I quietly murmured No No No, trying to make it happen otherwise.

Different sections of Testimony have different narrators. In each of those sections, the narration may be first, second, or third person. Anita Shreve? You be talented.

The narration style shows the complexity of each character--how close each can get to the situation and how emotionally involved they allow themselves to be.

The situation? A sex tape involving two 18 year old boys, one 19 year old boy, one 14 year old girl, and an unknown camera-person at a private school in Vermont. A good-intentioned attempt at keeping the incident contained. The fallout from such a scandal.

The novel is exactly what its title says it is--events leading up to, during, and after that one incident occured. No one knows the full story. No one, except for us, beyond the fourth wall, unable to do anything about it once it's over.

Testimony is about truth as it appears, as it morphs, and as it becomes untrue. Testimony is about vulnerability. It's about choice. It's about the aftermath of choice.

Read it if you are in academia. Read it if you are in a small town. Read it if you know about private schools. Read it if you were a student at some point. Read it to know the challenges people face when something goes horribly wrong, and realize that those horribly wrong situations can happen any time and anywhere.