“Most people prefer simple and nice stories…”
The Book of Mirrors“Most people prefer simple and nice stories…” is an expression of the narrator’s skepticism about how people respond to difficult truths. It appears as he reflects on the difference between uncovering what may have happened and securing justice, and on the appeal of stories that are easier to accept.
Wording and Context
The narrator says he agrees with Sam: people tend to prefer simple, pleasant stories to complicated and unhelpful truths. The observation comes after the narrator has parted from Sarah Harper and realizes that he may have untangled the affair only after it stopped mattering to him. He says he is not driven by a mission to make justice prevail, and does not treat truth and justice as interchangeable aims.
Narrative Function
The expression gives shape to the passage’s unresolved ending. Joseph Wieder has long been dead, and Richard Flynn is dead too; the narrator suspects that Laura Baines may have built her career on lies and perhaps on murder, but presents those possibilities as uncertain rather than established facts. His imagined scene of Laura searching for the manuscript while Wieder lies wounded leads to unanswered questions about Richard’s actions. Against that uncertainty, the expression points to the temptation to settle for a satisfying account even when the available truth remains complicated and incomplete.
