Biblioracle: ‘To Name the Bigger Lie’ explores how our memories may not always tell the truth
In a lot of ways, we are our memories. The things we’ve done, the people we’ve intersected with, and how these people and events have shaped us are not just like snapshots in an album (or smartphone), but more like a living present shaping how we see the world.
But what if our memories can’t be trusted? And what about the memories of things that have happened that we’ve never dealt with? How do those shape our lives going forward?
As I read Sarah Viren’s “To Name the Bigger Lie: A Memoir in Two Stories” I kept thinking about these questions and others. Even in the days after I’ve read the book, I’ve found myself haunted by what Viren reveals not just about her life, but all our lives.
At one level, the book is a memoir, one that interweaves two stories, one of Viren’s experience with a charismatic high school teacher, Dr. Whiles, who cracks open the minds of his young charges with philosophical conundrums drawn from Schopenhauer and Plato. Viren, a smart, but indifferent student, finds herself captivated by Dr. Whiles during her freshman year. But when she has him again junior year, he has become a man now in the apparent thrall of conspiracy theories, including Holocaust denial, which he shares with his impressionable charges.
While Viren, now a writing professor at Arizona State University is researching and writing this story of Dr. Whiles, her life is upended by a bogus charge of sexual harassment against Viren’s partner, Marta, and then Viren herself. Viren suspects — and quickly confirms — the culprit, a fellow academic who also desired a position at the University of Michigan that had been offered to Viren.
For Viren, the job is a dream posting that would allow her and her young family to move back to the Midwest of her birth. But quickly, Viren and Marta are wrapped up in a bureaucratic nightmare of institutional investigations at two universities. To Viren, the charges make no sense given what she’s certain she knows both about Marta and the timing of the alleged events.
But what if she’s been a fool?
Both stories carry plenty of tension: Will Viren make contact with Dr. Whiles and gain insight into what happened to the man, and in turn what happened to her youthful self? Will Viren and Marta be cleared of the charges in time for Viren to take the position at Michigan? Will the perpetrator be outed and punished?
If these narrative threads were all “To Name the Bigger Lie” had to offer, it would make for a compelling story, but Viren takes the opportunity of these braided incidents to interrogate how our memories function, and show how memories that are technically accurate to us may not tell the whole truth.
As she and Marta try to clear themselves, Viren reaches out to her old classmates from Dr. Whiles’ class, asking them what they remember, how they responded to incidents like Dr. Whiles showing a Holocaust denialist film in class, an incident that left Viren traumatized enough to run from the classroom.
The varying ways her classmates remember and interpret the past become opportunities for Viren to question herself, and in some cases, she comes away recognizing that she fundamentally misremembers her own life.
It would be satisfying to know that ultimately Dr. Whiles and the individual fabricating the charges are outed and punished, but if we understand anything from “To Name the Bigger Lie,” it’s that narratives are rarely so tidy, and the only thing we can do is make the best sense of the world with what we have.
John Warner is the author of “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.”
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus
2. “Trust” by Hernan Diaz
3. “Solito” by Javier Zamora
4. “You Could Make This Place Beautiful” by Maggie Smith
5. “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates
— Lianne T., Chicago
Something tells me that Lianne might take to the exploration of life and meaning that is Katherine May’s “Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age.”
1. “Out Stealing Horses” by Per Petterson
2. “Call Me by Your Name” by André Aciman
3. “The Tortilla Curtain” by T.C. Boyle
4. “The Thursday Murder Club” by Richard Osman
5. “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver
— Robert T., Columbus, Ohio
I think Robert will be interested in the unique combination of grit and drama that Daniel Woodrell brings to the page. He’s most known for “Winter’s Bone,” which would be a very fine choice, but I’m going to go with “The Maid’s Version” as my specific recommendation.
1. “Hello Beautiful” by Ann Napolitano
2. “Winter in Paradise” by Elin Hilderbrand
3. “Beware the Woman” by Megan Abbott
4. “The Last Thing He Told Me” by Laura Dave
5. “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho
— Georgia M., Greenville, South Carolina
A bit of a mix here, which scrambles the old Biblioracle circuits somewhat, but I’m going to fall back on a book that history shows just about anyone can find a good reason to latch onto, “The Namesake” by Jhumpa Lahiri.
Get a reading from the Biblioracle
Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com
