The Liar's Diary by Patry Francis
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(Hardcover)
- Pub. Date: February 2007
- 320pp
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Product Details
- Pub. Date: February 2007
- Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
- Format: Hardcover, 320pp
- ISBN-13: 9780525949909
- ISBN: 0525949909
Synopsis
How far would you go to protect your family? To protect your children? How many lies would you tell? Would you dare to admit the darkest truths - even to yourself?
Jeanne Cross is an ordinary suburban wife and mother with a seemingly "perfect" life when Ali Mather arrives on the scene, breaking all the rules and breaking hearts. Almost against her will, Jeanne is drawn to this powerfully seductive woman, a fascination that soon begins to infect Jeanne's husband as well as their teenage son. Though their friendship seems unlikely and even dangerous to their mutual acquaintances, Ali and Jeanne are connected by deep emotional needs, vulnerabilities, and long-held secrets that Ali has been privately recording in her diary.
The diary also holds the key to something darker. Though she can't prove it, Ali is convinced someone has been entering her house when she is not at home - and not with the usual intentions. What this burglar wants is nothing less than a piece of Ali's soul.
Publishers Weekly
A case study in the explosive effects of extreme denial, Francis's debut relies completely on its very unreliable narrator, with mixed results. When local violinist and composer Ali Mather, a very sexy 46, comes to teach music at the Bridgeway high school where narrator Jeanne Cross, a very plain 37, is the secretary, teachers and students alike are abuzz. Ali is separated from her mild husband George, and is soon sleeping with the 31-year-old shop teacher, Brian Shagaury (and also with car dealer Jack Butterfield). Jeanne is married to a buff orthopedic surgeon, Gavin, with whom she has an overweight, dyslexic 16-year-old son, Jamie, who attends the school. An unlikely friendship develops between the seemingly steady Jeanne and acting-out Ali, and Jeanne's purposefully flat narration is effective in doling out disorienting incongruities (as in the offhanded way Jeanne develops a serious pill habit). Ali's provocative lifestyle eventually intersects directly with Jeanne's home life. When tragedy strikes, Jeanne's Stepford routine holds for a while, then becomes a giveaway. (Feb.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information More Reviews and RecommendationsBiography
Patry Francis's poetry and short stories have appeared in the Tampa Review, Colorado Review, Ontario Review, and The American Poetry Review, among other publications. She is a three-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize and has twice been the recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant. The Liar's Diary is her first novel. Please visit the author's website at patryfrancis.com or her blog, Simply Wait.
Customer Reviews
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Engleby by another name...by Painter01
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January 19, 2009:
The author's use of the word "zest" on the first page should have tipped me off. Unless you're walking down the soap aisle or touring a winery, that word should not be in black and white. Let me qualify this by saying that once I start a book, I usually finish it, if only to write reviews like this one. While the general plot here is interesting, it is presented as that of a dime-store variant: a book that screams cheap and might have been helped by a little sleaze. Though the accolades describe the book as "creepy," what's really creepy about this book is a plot that seems to have been, if not ripped off from, at least inspired by, Sebastian Faulks' Engleby - but without the fine writing, character development, or "zest".
Ms. Francis' writing is annoying as well. You won't find any insightful passages that touch us all on some universal level or beautiful similes that make you stop and think. You just end up saying "What?" What do you say to lines like "gossip was as cheap and plentiful as the rubbery pizza in the cafeteria." Is that from Magnum PI?
Then there's the limited vocabulary. I don't know how many times I read, reread, tried to forget, and ultimately substituted my own phrases for her use of "I stammered", "obviously", "tension", "nauseous", "people turned to stare", "George [verb] sadly", "gulped wine", and "surprised". Perhaps nothing captured so completely her range of vocabulary than her usage of "codicil" to refer to a final point someone was making. "Codicil" is a legal document used to re-execute wills!
The narration is like tripping down an escalator going up - redundant and painful. Ms. Francis attempts to use a protagonist centric voice that and emulates the insecurities of an emotionally bludgeoned housewife. Nothing wrong with that. Unfortunately, this was a clumsy and self-conscious effort. The difference between Ms. Francis and her inspiration, Sebastian Faulks, is the difference between a 1940's movie and one from today. Just like a silver screen dinosaur, Ms. Francis treats us to blow-by-blow descriptions of everything from how she picked up and invariably "gulped" a drink to how someone served her antipasto "thoughtfully remembering that I loved artichokes but didn't much care for the fatty meats".
Finally, there's the ending. It is identical to Sebastian Faulks' Engleby where the narrator ends up being the killer and meets with a psychotherapist. But while the novel Engleby is breathtaking in the level of delusion the protagonist and the narration descend into, Ms. Francis slaps us all with an optimistic and near happy ending. It goes something like this: Sure, all three family members were jailed for one crime or another, but they're all on the road to recovery. Son is well adjusted, in college, and has a girlfriend. Mother will make parole. And up till now pedophilic/serial-rapist/domestic abusive father is making great strides in therapy and getting back into a constructive relationship with his rape-victim/son. A little far fetched even for the Brother's Grimm.
True, this is a page turner - but only because you want to find out the ending. But such is the case with knock-knock jokes. Wanting to get to the end is not by and initself a sign of a great book. It's just evidence that a book ex
Excellent Book!by Anonymous
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February 02, 2008: This book was excellent. I will be looking for anything esle she writes. It will keep your attention throughout the whole book with many surprises and twists!
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