The Liar by Stephen Fry
Adrian is the liar. He lies charmingly, convincingly, and always. You can't trust a word he says. Nonetheless, the novel in tangled and enticing, funny and with all the rude bits left in. Well worth a look.
He is not, however, the only liar (most people lie at some point in their lives, surely?) and as the novel switches effortlessly back and forth between what is happening in the "present" (a spy story) and Adrian's past (public school life) lies are revealed and concealed - although not necessarily after they have been spoken. One gets the sensation that one knows as much and as little as if one were a character, and at the very end, one is left wondering if there was anything true in it at all. It's very witty, very knowing, and very well-educated (or fakes it well enough to fool me).
Having previously read Moab is my Washpot, the autobiography of his first two decades, I was fascinated by the common themes & situations: certain passages from each would not be out of place in the other, and some scenes occur in both. For example, Adrian is caught - or says he was caught - with his lover's cocaine and is caught out by answering to the name written in the front cover of a book he is carrying, which is not the name he had previously told the police. Despite his fervent protests, his parents are called. Fry, likewise, recounts how he was caught using an assumed name in the same embarrassing fashion, and his reactions recorded in Washpot are clearly the template for Adrian's. Likewise, his first love, at school, for a younger boy is taken from his life, but changed to fit the needs of the plot. It's an interesting comparison to be able to make: it is as if the scaffolding of the story were being revealed. In places this certainly makes the story more credible, but not necessarily stronger as it removes some of the doubt which is so important to the novel. In the end, it seems, one should be entirely unsure of what went on at all.
Washpot was written several years after The Liar, which leaves one wondering to what extent the life is imitating the art. Adrian is represented in a similar way to how Fry represents himself: clever, quick, anarchic, gay, in love, in trouble... but there are interesting differences. Adrian, for example, gets married at the end of the book and becomes a Cambridge don, living his high jinks out within the confines of an entirely respectable life. It must not be forgotten, of course, that Washpot is also edited for public consumption: particularly the more scandalous situations left in have been, at the very least, altered enought to save the embarrassment of bystanders and innocents. How much, then, does one really reflect the other?
Read it with: Moab is my Washpot by Stephen Fry - his autobiography of his first twenty years or so. Interesting cross-overs with The Liar.
Or: Watch Big Fish for another witty & fun look at the truths, lies, and stories people tell.
Copyright: 1991
Read it if: You've already encountered & enjoyed Stephen Fry, or have a sense of humour.
Don't if: You're homophobic (in which case, you probably shouldn't be reading this, either, tbh)
Rating: Amusing & perplexing.
He is not, however, the only liar (most people lie at some point in their lives, surely?) and as the novel switches effortlessly back and forth between what is happening in the "present" (a spy story) and Adrian's past (public school life) lies are revealed and concealed - although not necessarily after they have been spoken. One gets the sensation that one knows as much and as little as if one were a character, and at the very end, one is left wondering if there was anything true in it at all. It's very witty, very knowing, and very well-educated (or fakes it well enough to fool me).
Having previously read Moab is my Washpot, the autobiography of his first two decades, I was fascinated by the common themes & situations: certain passages from each would not be out of place in the other, and some scenes occur in both. For example, Adrian is caught - or says he was caught - with his lover's cocaine and is caught out by answering to the name written in the front cover of a book he is carrying, which is not the name he had previously told the police. Despite his fervent protests, his parents are called. Fry, likewise, recounts how he was caught using an assumed name in the same embarrassing fashion, and his reactions recorded in Washpot are clearly the template for Adrian's. Likewise, his first love, at school, for a younger boy is taken from his life, but changed to fit the needs of the plot. It's an interesting comparison to be able to make: it is as if the scaffolding of the story were being revealed. In places this certainly makes the story more credible, but not necessarily stronger as it removes some of the doubt which is so important to the novel. In the end, it seems, one should be entirely unsure of what went on at all.
Washpot was written several years after The Liar, which leaves one wondering to what extent the life is imitating the art. Adrian is represented in a similar way to how Fry represents himself: clever, quick, anarchic, gay, in love, in trouble... but there are interesting differences. Adrian, for example, gets married at the end of the book and becomes a Cambridge don, living his high jinks out within the confines of an entirely respectable life. It must not be forgotten, of course, that Washpot is also edited for public consumption: particularly the more scandalous situations left in have been, at the very least, altered enought to save the embarrassment of bystanders and innocents. How much, then, does one really reflect the other?
Read it with: Moab is my Washpot by Stephen Fry - his autobiography of his first twenty years or so. Interesting cross-overs with The Liar.
Or: Watch Big Fish for another witty & fun look at the truths, lies, and stories people tell.
Copyright: 1991
Read it if: You've already encountered & enjoyed Stephen Fry, or have a sense of humour.
Don't if: You're homophobic (in which case, you probably shouldn't be reading this, either, tbh)
Rating: Amusing & perplexing.