My mother’s memoirs, my Father’s Lie, and other true stories.Russell Banks ( was born in Newton, Massachusetts and was educated at Carolina).

My mother’s memoirs, my Father’s Lie,

in the story a gentleman, Earl, is putting his relationship with his parents in perspective by recalling some of the stories and lies they told.

Earl’s mother’s stories:

Focus on well-known and well-loved people and situations. Earl tells the reader that his mother grew up “poor and beautiful in a New England mill town. By telling stories about romantically rejection the glamorous movie star Sonny Tufts, knowing the infamous characters Peyton Place, and seeing Earl on television being interviewed by Dan Rather.

Father’s lies

Earl describes his father as a “depressed, cynical alcoholic”. Earl tells the reader that, in contrast to his mother, has father didn’t tell stories. The one story Earl’s father did tell was that of his beloved Uncle Earl, after whom he named his son. Earl’s father lamented that his parents “tried to get rod of him in the summers” but Uncle Earl loved him. Earl later finds that that this story is a lie, that Uncle Earl didn’t exist.

Earl’s mother hopes to gain the love that Sonny Tuft, Peyton Place, and Dan Rather receive by creating a fictitious associated to them.

Earl’s father recognized his lack of love and, in an effort to find wholeness, he created a self that once had the love he seeks.