Harlan Norem

It's the Truth! Harlan Norem

The novel's impetus that sets conflict in motion is a fierce blizzard. The story starts quietly with ordinary intelligent adults before peace and quiet are thrown to the wind. Rescued from certain death, and now tapped together in a farmhouse during the storm that rages for days, ten strangers encounter a clashing diversity! They find themselves drawn into arguments about who can be trusted amid the voices proclaiming contradictory truths! Antagonists become real people relating their poignant experiences that shaped their life and faith. This is a character study reflecting our American society. The blizzard is unpleasantly real as are the characters. There are no straw men, caricatures or weak arguments. Each conviction is treated honestly and played straight. Strong but incompatible versions of 'the truth' collide. Both the atheist reader and the fundamentalist Christian will think at points "Now this character is saying what I truly believe" Feminist critical of male domination, Democrat opposed to Republican, church member vs agnostic positions are challenged and ably defended. Muslim and Jewish faiths are presented from the perspective of adherents. The reader is prodded to confront and consider contrary values and points of view. It's the Truth! takes the friendly masks off the greed, power and hypocrisy in American capitalism, in corporations, Congress, the church and the media. It challenges arrogant political, religious and commercial claims to be telling us the truth. This entertaining, thought-provoking novel looks at how? brilliant political hacks changed the vision of our Founding Fathers to the conglomerate-media-complex buying votes of national leaders and shaping our laws, - the early church changed faith into a religion in order to homogenize and control Christianity. To establish a rational basis for the faith, 'accuracy' supplanted the biblical idea of personal 'truth' - males have used muscle