TLC Blog Tour: The Question Authority

The Question Authority is one of those books that is a slow burn.  I didn't race through the pages like I thought I would, but instead I enjoyed the development of the story and the very timely topic Cline writes about so well.

Synopsis:

The Question Authority is a timely and moving novel about what happens when childhood best friends face the damage done by the teacher who molested them both.

Meet Nora Buchbinder—formerly rich and now broke and newly employed at the NYC Education Department. She would be the last woman in Brooklyn to claim #MeToo, but when a work assignment reunites her with her childhood best friend, Beth, she finds herself in a hall of mirrors. Was their eight grade teacher Beth’s lover or her rapist? What should justice look like after so much time has passed? And what, if anything, can Nora do now?

In this powerful and emotionally wrenching story, Nora and Beth’s memories, and those of their classmates, their former teacher, and members of his family are revealed. These memories shed light on the way we manage and absorb unbearable behavior and how one experience can influence a whole life.

The Question Authority tracks Nora’s trajectory from denial to reinvention, self pity to self righteousness and, finally, insight and action. As Nora begins to understand her own personal #Metoo, she faces some difficult revelations about herself and how she has chosen to live her life.

Reading The Question Authority left me with so many things I wanted to discuss. Just a few days ago a group of us at work talked about the fallibility of memory.  This seems like such a huge question in this novel as Nora and Beth think back to something that happened years ago.  

Years have passed since Nora and Beth's encounter with this teacher, yet this encounter is affecting them so many years later. Cline does a great job of exploring this as well.  

And then of course, there is the question of this teacher and how his life has turned out.  Should someone still be held responsible for their actions decades later?  

Cline's The Question Authority is full of thought provoking ideas and questions.  Although I felt like the story meandered from time to time, it is still a novel that is worth reading and one that brings up some timely and interesting ideas.

Thanks to tLC Book Tours for providing a copy of this book for my review.  All opinions expressed are, as always, my own.