The third novel from this Los Angeles resident whose published work has also included non-fiction and poetry. This is the story of an unhappy marriage, an unflinching one-sided first-person narrative which records the manipulations, gaslighting, aggressions and continual scoring of points. I wouldn't suggest buying this book for anyone as a wedding present!
It's written in short passages without chapters and there's a definite poetic feel to the writing but it is a poetry rooted in soul-bearing with a willingness to air everything. These passages often explode with a rush of indignation, anger, confusion or humiliation and are related without much development. This has the effect of making it quite a quick read, although you will be stopped in your tracks by what it written and how it is conveyed. It does also create a distance, it does not flow as we would expect a traditional narrative to, which hammers home you are reading only what the narrator, the wife, wishes to convey. The husband is fairly odious from the get-go and I certainly would question what she saw in him and why she stayed with him, when she recognises his behaviour as so coercive, but given the clever use of the plural in the title I found myself guiltily questioning how reliable a narrator she is.
This is an intense read, it's helped along by bitter humour and especially the narrator's desire for love. Pretty ambivalent about the idea of becoming a mother her account of learning this on the hoof, a learning not shared by her partner feels convincing and is powerfully done.
This is strong stuff but the style did make me feel as an onlooker onto this marriage that I was continually being bashed about the head by the recording of their everyday life. It's both very personal, in what is being shared, and impersonal (their offspring referred to throughout as "the child"). I admired the quality of writing but I couldn't help the discomfort I felt in such close analysis of this relationship nor my irritation at these characters and the repetition of bad behaviour over the years. Nobody seems to learn anything, but I guess that is the point.
For me the toxicity was a little overpowering and felt a little one-note as the novel progressed and the relentless introspection was a little too intense for me to want to give it my five star rating but it's a powerful read, which some will find triggering but some will hopefully learn something that the characters seem to be missing out on.
"Liars" is published in the UK by Picador on 22nd August 2024. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.
No comments:
Post a Comment