Right out of the gate, Le Guin throws down the gauntlet:
Page 1: "Truth is a matter of the imagination. The soundest fact may fail or prevail in the style of its telling: like that singular organic jewel of our seas, which grows brighter as one woman wears it and, worn by another, dolls and goes to dust. Facts are no more solid, coherent, round, and real then pearls are. But both are sensitive."