Customer Reviews

Lies Will Take You Somewhere

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lies Will Take You Somewhere, the first novel from award winning short story writer Sheila Schwartz, is a beautifully rendered story of a fractured marriage. The author's deep understanding of Jewish religious tradition and ethics enriches the telling. Sensitive writing and astute symbolism flow organically with an usual story line. Because this is a very different type of story, I remained engaged and curious until the end. The end is disturbing and left me wanting to talk it over with a close friend. Deep and complex, Lies Will Take You Somewhere is all the more tragic because we will not be hearing the voice of this gifted woman writer again. Sheila Schwartz passed away shortly before its publication. Lies Will Take You Somewhere would make an excellent choice for a book club discussion. I hope this beautiful book will find the audience of serious readers it deserves. High recommended.

This debut novel by a Pushcart Prize & O. Henry short-story award winner follows a rabbi's wife's journey home to Florida to deal with her dead mother's house. It's sad and dark in places but also pretty funny in others. Mostly it's truly compelling. I could not put it down. Highly recommended.

I got this book after reading short story "Finding Peace" by the same author and published by One Story last November. It's a beautfully written book. As I'm not Jewish, it was very interesting to discover so much about the Jewish religion and traditions. I could certainly relate to all the emotional family life turmoil. Yet the book was much too dark for me: kidnapping, rape, extremism, abortion, death of a child. Oh dear, so much sorrow! I still would recommend the book as Sheila Schwartz is such a gifted writer who passed away too soon.

I have to admit I didn't finish this book. I found it boringly written, the plot not very interesting, the characters even less so, except for Malkeh, but she's just presented as a problem. It is evident by p. 2 that this is a novel about an unhappy housewife who will probably have an affair, which her husband, who knows his wife is unhappy with him, is going to be surprised and angered by. If you want to read a good novel which enhances your understanding of people, which presents people unlike stock characters in middling books, and which portrays the depth of the inner lives of those people, try Dan Chaon's two novels.

The best I can say for this one is that it might help you pass some time. For me it didn't even do that.