How does the author structure the memoir, What You Have Heard Is True?

Though generally the memoir proceeds chronologically, its structure is still loose and diffuse. Forché chooses not to include chapter headings or titles, nor to include chapter numbers even. The chapter lengths are variable, and sometimes interspersed with selections from Forché’s notebooks. These entries are not dated, nor are they contextualized. The reader has no idea if they are copied verbatim from Forché’s notebooks during this time, or if they have been modified or adapted in some way. The result is a text that moves throughout time without rigid commitment to order or structure.

In general, the text moves chronologically through time. The first third of the novel focuses on Forché’s interactions with Leonel, the middle third on Forché’s growing sense of purpose and her new experiences in El Salvador, with the final third focusing on Forché’s new life back in the U.S., which she spends trying to attract attention to the war in El Salvador. Forché occasionally delves into the memory of a particular experience before, either in connection with her family history, her experience in Spain, or her relationship with her ex-husband.

Forché only significantly and explicitly breaks from this pattern in the first and last parts of the novel. The opening pages of the memoir open in medias res, with Forché and a stranger (Leonel) discovering a body, while the last pages of the memoir are dated “September 2009,” the only dated section of the memoir. This structural decision, to conclude the memoir with Leonel’s death, helps reinforce the impression that What You Have Heard is True is as much a memoir for Leonel as it is a memoir of Forché’s adventures in El Salvador.