Customer Reviews

My Liar: A Novel

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

 

 

And this book's voice is true, indeed. I was amazed that Cline got to the heart of what happens to friendship during grueling production schedules. Reviewers will talk about the women in this book in terms of "competition" and "ambition." I think Cline speaks to something more elemental: how to maintain the course when working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week while, if you an editor, in a dark room.

This book shows us the movie business, from an insider's point of view, and the struggles of the complex interpersonal relationships that result from a town full of people who are all trying to 'make it.' I found it very interesting and easy to identify with the characters and the situations, and even got insights on a few of my own relationships. Additionally, the author paints a very accurate portrayal of life in LA in the 90's, when earthquakes, riots, and uncertainty loomed large. I highly recommend this book.

My Liar flows as smoothly as beach reading--but it is so much more. The exploration of important questions about the nature of friendship, commitment, and mutual obligation is masterful, and the writing is consistently both clever and evocative.

I loved this book, couldn't put it down, and of course now I want to know "what happens next" -- isn't that what a really good novel is supposed to do to you?

Things I most like about "My Liar":

* Extremely strong, well-developed main characters, especially the narcissistic, manipulative but so obviously attractive Laura. The relationship between Laura and Annabeth is complex, very real, and often painful to experience.

* Cline's references and analogies and observations are so right on and so clever and so funny (like ... "the Linnaeus of dingbats" ... "famous conversations" in a relationship ... "the intercostal clavicle") that I had to hold myself back from pointing them out to the strangers sitting next to me on the subway. This characteristic is also true of Cline's first novel, "What to Keep."

* One of the best things about the book is the level of detail about movie editing and other details of the L.A. film production world. Maureen Corrigan (in her book "Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading") made the excellent point that one of the great things about detective novels is that they're almost the only fiction you can find that is, in essence, about someone's actual, day-to-day work. This is true of "My Liar," too. The work of an editor is fascinating in its own right, and it also gives the story a strong grounding in the real world.

Three thumbs up for "My Liar."