Krisztina Kodó: Book Review of Monique Truong’s The Sweetest Fruits (2019) on the Interpretations, Impressions and Adaptions of Lafcadio Hearn’s Life

Book review

DOI 10.51313/Freeside-2024-10

The Sweetest Fruits (2019) by Monique Truong is a novel based on the life and career of Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), an Irish-Greek writer, journalist, teacher, and essayist. The structural layout of the novel offers an unusually multi-faceted approach to storytelling. The story is told by three women, who had an important role in his life and career. The storytellers are Rosa (Hearn’s Greek mother), Alethea (liberated Afro-American slave, and Hearn’s first wife), and Setsu (Hearn’s second, Japanese wife). Through their stories Truong’s female protagonists introduce themselves and their love relationship to Hearn, and thereby formulate their own impressions, interpretations of his life and understanding of how he adapted his life to suit his new environments. The stories relate their interpretation and version of truth on which Hearn’s life and career has been established. The singular structure and narrative mode of the novel attempts an extraordinary approach to the life of an exceptional man. Truong’s style is above all intriguing, fluid and dynamic. The interesting and page-turner approach make it an exciting reading.