I hadn't heard of the author, but she references a couple of awards she's been up for or maybe won. What got her started writing this memoir was the election of trump and how to tell lies from truth. The first part of the book is about her high school philosophy teacher (I certainly never took philosophy in high school, but she comes from a much different social circle than I). She loved/worshipped this teacher, as did many of her classmates. One reason I'm not fond of philosophy is that the end result seems to be that you can't ever be certain of anything. So the teacher starts off with the usual what is reality spiel, then as he progresses he changes. He accepts religion and becomes a Catholic then for some reason goes off on conspiracy theories which he throws out at the class and tells them to do their own research, the mainstay of all conspiracy theories. When he presents the revisionist idea that the Holocaust might have happened but it was nowhere near the disaster it was presented to be she finally pulls away from him. Then later, as an adult writing about this encounter with conspiracy theories and how intelligent people can promote them, out of nowhere comes a Title 9 accusation against her wife - that she sexually harassed her graduate students. She knows her wife couldn't have done that but starts to think, "well, maybe." Again, well, maybe seems to be what you come up with in philosophy. So this whole small book, 304 pages, is about telling the truth from lies. Sounds boring, but it made quite an impression. ( )

This book was captivating and hard to put down, but the last part of the book really annoyed me. It was like a writing exercise the author would use with students more so than something that should be included in a published memoir. ( )

In her book To Name the Greater Lie author Sarah Viren revisits an elite philosophy class she took in high school and remembers her instructor, Dr. Whiles. He was an engaging, charismatic teacher, but also a bit of a crackpot. She wrestles with his fixation on Plato's Allegory of the Cave and wonders about the wisdom of his showing a Holocaust denial video to his impressionable young students. She juxtaposes the Whiles narrative with a more contemporary story about a jealous acquaintance who used false accusations of sexual harassment to scuttle Viren's appointment to her dream job. Through both narratives, Viren philosophizes about truth and lies, shadows and light. The book does go on rather too long (Viren's dialogue with a kale-eating tortoise pushes it over the top), but the author does have valuable things to say about truth and fabrication in the modern world. ( )

DNF'd at page 105. The underlying story is fascinating, and I recommend you read the piece Viren wrote about it in the New York Times (I cannot link but the title is “The Accusations Were Lies. But Could We Prove It?”) Viren sort of weighs down the central story in which her wife is falsely accused of sexual misconduct, and a second story about abuses by a charismatic high school teacher, with bland interviews and insights not as weighty as the author thinks. This was technically well-written, but I was honestly bored to tears and life is too short. ( )

nonfiction, memoir by queer author/(writing? lit?) professor

The first half seems to be about the author's high school (in Tampa FL) philosophy teacher, and the second half deals with her modern day experiences while her wife (also a professor at the same Arizona university) is targeted by "mysterious and frightening accusations." Two of the blurbers refer to the book as a "thriller" but the first 59 pages (almost the whole of the first story) are laughably dull unless you are one of those people who actually do like to question the reality of everything while still continuing to show up for work, holding down a job so you can be paid and continue to feed and shelter yourself and your family. (If this is you, WE ARE NOT FRIENDS.) There is a little self discovery in terms of the author figuring out that she likes girls and coming out as queer to her trusted friends -- but it's hardly a riveting start. Not badly written or anything like that, just dull AF. I'm surprised I made it this far, and that's only because I was hoping to use it for a bingo square on this month's reading challenge (either 'set in a school' or 'author name starts with S') but it just isn't worth it. ( )