Published by Graydon House Books ISBN 9781488056413
Trade paperback, $16.99, 352 pages
Kelly Rimmer's novel Truths I Never Told You tells the story of the Walsh family, preparing to take their beloved patriarch Patrick to a long term care facility where they can better care for his dementia. Tim, at 42 the eldest, is a orthopaedic surgeon. Jeremy, 41 is a professor, and his twin sister Ruth runs the family construction business. Beth at 40 is the youngest, a psychologist who has new baby.
Beth is having a difficult time with postpartum depression. Her loving husband Hunter has tried to help her, and her siblings have begun to notice the problem as well. The family has a tradition of Sunday dinner at their father's home, which now must be cleaned out and prepared to be sold.
When Beth goes into the attic of the family home to clean it out, she is shocked by what she finds. Her meticulous father's attic is filled to the brim with trash, and with paintings apparently done by her father. She also finds letters written by her mother, who died in a car accident when Beth was a baby. But the dates on the letters don't match up with the date that she was told her mother died.
Interspersed with Beth's story are the letters written by her mother Grace. The letters show that Grace also suffered from severe postpartum depression, which lasted almost an entire year after the birth of each baby. Her depression grew worse with each subsequent child, and after giving birth to four children in three years, she was in desperate straits.
The loving father that the Walsh children know doesn't match up with the man that Grace wrote about in her letters. That Patrick was rarely home, going to the bar with friends and spending what little money they had on alcohol. Unbeknown to Grace, Patrick frequently borrowed money from her parents, who did not like Patrick at all.
Beth tries to find out what the truth is behind this new information about their parents, and what she uncovers could turn their family upside down.
Truths I Never Told You is an emotional, riveting story. I come from a family with siblings born close together, and I found that aspect of the story so well done. The family dinners and the sibling relationships just feel so authentic. Rimmer also deals with the devastating issue of postpartum depression in a compassionate and honest manner, and we learn a lot about how women in the 1950s had such little control over their lives.
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