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The March 24, 2008 issue of The New Yorker features an interesting article that analyses the place of truth in two types of writing: fiction and history. Although I was not aware of the tension that existed between writers of history and fiction, I can’t help but agree with Jill Lapore’s assertion that:

“History matters, but the best novels boast a kind of
truth that even the best history books can never claim.”

It’s not that I dislike history. In fact, I have a keen interest in learning about the people and the events that shaped the environment I live in today. And, I often find myself looking up both significant and marginal figures on Wikipedia to get a better understanding of their place in history–when was the last time you googled Michael of Cesena?

What turns me off from traditional historical writing is the distance from which the story is told. When I pick up a book on a historical figure, I want that book to take me into the head space and emotional state of the person I’m reading about. Unfortunately most history books are unable to do that. They are told from the view point of the observer or researcher. And despite the historian’s best efforts to give the protagonist a personality, it always seems to fall short of what the real person must’ve been.

My alternative to history books has become historical fiction. They provide the depth and complexity of character that I crave as a reader and the historical background that I appreciate learning about. And yes, I understand that writers of historical fiction often manipulate facts, time lines and events to better suit the plot–something which can be easily cleared up with a simple google search. Besides, I’m not reading about Henry VII or Helen of Troy for historical accuracy. I’m reading it to better understand what that person may have been like. These books may not be sources of accurate historical or factual truth, but they do serve as sources of a different type of truth.

Haven’t you ever wondered what it must feel like to be abandoned by your husband because your age does not permit you to conceive? Pick up Sandra Gulland’s The Josephine B. Trilogy that is written in the style of diary entries that reveal the protagonists deepest anxieties, disappointments and delights.

What was it like to be one of Jesus’ confidants and outlawed disciples in a time when a woman’s place was limited to the home? You should read Margaret George’s Mary Called Magdalene to gain some insight the into public and personal battles a woman had to face when she abandoned her safe domestic life and followed a new ideological path.

The truths these books and many others like it reveal are the truths of being a woman. They are the truths of heartbreak and abandonment; duty and passion; unrequited love and loss. They are the truths of being a daughter and mother; a victim and independent agent. Essentially, many of these books tell of the truths of what it means to be a woman. History books, for all their factual accuracy, can’t capture the internal experience of being a woman.

Some other very good historical fiction novels:
Phillipa Gregory, The Other Boleyn Girl
Anita Diamant, The Red Tent