Summary ~ At a New England boarding school, a sex scandal is about to break. Even more shocking than the sexual acts themselves is the fact that they were caught on videotape. A Pandora’s box of revelations, the tape triggers a chorus of voices–those of the men, women, teenagers, and parents involved in the scandal–that details the ways in which lives can be derailed or destroyed in one foolish moment., the needs and fears that drive ordinary men and women into intolerable dilemmas, and the ways in which our best intentions can lead to our worst transgressions.innocentsexplores the dark impulses that sway the lives of seeming
Writing with a pace and intensity surpassing even her own greatest work, Anita Shreve delivers in TESTIMONY a gripping emotional drama with the impact of a thriller. No one more compellingly
Anita Shreve’s Testimony was this months book club read. I’m torn about what I thought about it. I was really bored with most of the story but liked the beginning and end. The book is told from multiple perspectives which got distracting at times. Some of the characters who told the story from their point of view confused me with their importance and relevance to the story. Did we really need to know that person’s thoughts to get the gist of the story? Really?
The story circles around a stupid night in a dorm room with very drunk teenagers and their crazy sexual escapades. Being married to someone in law enforcement, the common denominator to most sexual assaults is alcohol. No surprise then that that is the case in this work of fiction. Actually that is the problem I had with the book on the whole. I felt like I was reading an ongoing newspaper story told through multiple articles that drew the story out for too long.
An interesting point was brought up at our lunch/meeting for Testimony. “Would you want your teenager to read this book?” The mutual agreement was yes, it would be an eye opener to teens out there that this type of thing can happen. Testimony was inspired by the 2006 Duke Lacrosse scandal, proof that fact can be stranger than fiction. Throughout the discussion I tended to feel out of the loop because I was the only one at the table who had read the book instead of listen to the audiobook. [Quick question to you book bloggers and readers/listeners out there: Do you think that listening to an audiobook is equivalent to reading the book?]
If you are a fan of Jodi Picoult and other “true life” fiction stories, than Anita Shreve’s Testimony may be the book for you this spring.
{Rating 3 out of 5}
Planet Books 