Customer Reviews

The Penguin Book of Lies

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This is a compilation of 182 pieces written about lies and lying, from the Bible (Jacob pretending to his blind father Isaac that he is Esau) to an angry editorial in the Independent in 1990 (the year the book was published) about the catalogue of lies emanating from Mrs Thatcher's government. In the earlier part of the book there are many pieces in which theologians and philosophers distinguish different kinds of lies, some less serious and more excusable than others; sometimes satirists join in. That debate still went on in the 19th century. Also in the earlier part there are accounts of treachery, of liars having been found out, some of the latter quite amusing. Nearly half the book concerns the 20th century, when the majority of the pieces are about German, British and American politics, in war-time propaganda as well as in peace, and these pieces become longer and longer. One can sense the anger of the editor, a freelance journalist. But there are also some unexpected pieces: there is a discussion about doctors prescribing placebos, making patients think they are being given serious medicines when in fact they are given something quite innocuous. There is Freud on unconscious lying. There is a piece about women faking orgasms to please their men. One piece is about how you can manipulate the statistics averages to give a false impression. The book does well what it sets out to do; but personally I found it only mildly interesting.