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Dec 06, 2011

Angie rated it:

Slater is an excellent writer. I liked the play between fact and fiction and her central theme that one can get to the essence of truth through fiction--especially when a ficticious situation is used as an extended metaphor--as opposed to fact. I enjoyed the first quarter of the book. After that it devolved into narcissism and she belabors the "Am I lying? Am I not? Does it matter?" game that she plays with her reader.

She claims this book is about her relationship with More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Kate rated it:

This was a tricky book to read, because the author/narrator tells you right off the bat that maaaaaaybe she made some things up and maaaaaybe she didn't. Which is, I guess, the truth about most memoirs, but Slater likes to remind you now and then that what you just read might have only happened in her mind. Very tricksy, but not as off-putting as it might sound. This self-consciousness comes off less as po-mo defense tactics than honest representation, because central to the memoir is her seizur More...

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Aug 03, 2009

Jenny rated it:

I absolutely adored this memoir, but perhaps it's not for everyone. "Lying" is the coming of age story of Lauren Slater and describes her battle with epilepsy and the attendant neurological and psychological symptoms, which include a tendency to exaggerate and lie. Throughout the memoir Slater is up front about the fact that she is blending fact and fiction and is using epilepsy as a metaphor for her mind and the things she is struggling with. So you're never quite clear what is " More...

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Sep 11, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

I couldn’t decide for a while whether I loved or hated Lauren Slater’s book Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir. Finally, maybe a quarter of the way into it, I decided I loved it and I never changed my mind again. But it’s the kind of book I would think carefully about before I recommended it to anyone, as it strikes me as potentially hateable. It seems that Slater has a talent for stirring up controversy (whether this is what she intends or not, I’m not sure). My first introduction to her was the 2006 More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 21, 2011

Erin rated it:

I really enjoyed reading Lauren Slater’s Lying because of the range of experimentation within the text. The problem I often have with memoir is the tendency some writers have to be overly poignant and important about their life stories. Personally, I’m not a real fan of that type of memoir. That’s why I really appreciated Slater’s ability to tell her story with a really specific kind of coherence and intelligence. She is able to look at the experiences within her life from a critical as well as More...

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Jun 17, 2011

Mariah rated it:

This work of "nonfiction" was an early life autobiography of Slater, who has (or does she?) epilepsy. It was very well written, but she admitted freely throughout the book she lies frequently and she never lets you know how much, if any, of what she writes is true. I see her point in doing this, but it bothered me for some reason. I also have a tendency not to enjoy "woe is me" books people write about themselves (I did not rave about Eat, Pray, Love like most other women More...

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Jul 21, 2010

Jason rated it:

Like Hustvedt's The Shaking Woman, you might call this a neurobiography too. But this one is more playfully postmodern--and for me, a little gimmicky. Slater toys with the truth (and therefore the reader). She messes with the autobiographical pact--the contract between writer and reader (described artfully by Philippe Lejeune). The sentences are very good, and the concept is imaginative. I read it quickly and was engaged. Then I felt somewhat irritated. I've taught it a few times and students lo More...

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Jul 11, 2011

Ann rated it:

_Lying_ works with epilepsy as a metaphor for memoir, and Slater uses this metaphor because she has been diagnosed with borderline personality, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar, Munchausen's, OCD, depression, and autism, as well as epilepsy at various points in her life. I liked the premise, but found--as I think I am supposed to--the book frustrating to read b/c I was always wondering what was metaphor and what was "true." The purpose of her work is to get us to think about e More...

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Apr 06, 2008

Andi rated it:

But really, this book is fascinating - the writing is excellent, the story captivating, and the ideas it tussles with are ones that all writers (and readers) need to come to a peace with. (In that sense, Lying seems to be a bit like I Think We Need to Talk about Kevin, which I admit to not having read, but that seems to be complicated and troubling in all the right ways. Check out this glorious post from Tales from the Reading Room to see what I mean.)

Slater’s Lying is the story of her More...

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May 14, 2011

Linda rated it:

This compelling book has been difficult for me to process. It was not difficult to read. I whizzed through it, neglecting household chores and the telephone. In only 221 pages, Slater's grim account of her "disease" which could be epilepsey or not, tasks us with believing her version of how illness can color a life. Not only has she had some illness but unpleasant interactions with adults who should have helped her along the way. Born to the Jewish tradition she finds comfort in a More...

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Mar 17, 2007

Brice rated it:

Lying begins: “I exaggerate,” and of course she does. How can you trust a book that states, quite clearly, that it is full of lies?
Slater might have epilepsy or Munchausen, she might see auras, might be experiencing grand mal seizures, might have gotten an operation separating her right and left brain, or she might be lying along every detail to weave a metaphorical story of her life. In some cases, she admits she might be lying, "I have epilepsy. Or I feel I have epilepsy. Or More...

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Mar 28, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

I LOVED this book. It is successful and riveting on several levels: a moving narrative drama, a meditation on truth in memoir and metaphor, an education on epilepsy...a truly unique read. And beautifully written. It is also interesting to consider this memoir and the author's position (written in the late 90s) in light of the recent uproar over truth in memoirs (e.g. James Frey, Augusten Burroughs).

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Mar 31, 2008

Jafar rated it:

A very fascinating “memoir” whose principal theme is the author’s struggle with epilepsy. Here’s the trick: Slater insists that this a nonfiction book, but she admits that she’s given her imagination a free rein. She won’t even tell you if she actually had epilepsy or the whole thing is just a fabrication! She’s picked up the right disease for this mischievous purpose. Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy have a tendency for emotional instability, mythomania, exaggeration, melodrama, and hypergr More...

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Jan 31, 2011

David rated it:

I like this book for presenting contradictions in the nonfiction form, for acknowledging that the ways we present story aim for truth in metaphor, not a truth in a perfect representation of fa ts.

With that said, the book is a bit heavy-handed (often, the narrator breaks out and addresses the reader with "did this really happen or am I lying to you again" type questions, which is usually unnecessary and actually takes away from the contradictory scenes she sometimes presents).

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Dec 25, 2008

Alexis rated it:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the use of illness as metaphor. I know that people have felt uncomfortable with this book because of the ambiguity, but I was okay with that. I felt the underlying meaning was more important than the details. And it's not like she didn't warn us.

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Apr 07, 2008

Alicia rated it:

I am giving this book three stars because the writing is good and its a fascinating page-turner for sure, but this book annoyed me! Maybe I don't like being lied to, and wasn't in the mood for this game when I read it... but the idea is certainly interesting--that this is a sort of subjective work of creative non-fiction, a fiction-nonfiction hybrid... which when you think about it is what memoir writing really is. Maybe I'm irritated by Slater constantly saying she does not want this to be a fi More...

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Sep 27, 2011

Kristen rated it:

I'm supposed to write a 500 word review of this for a class I'm taking, but for now I'll just say I liked it. Her prose is spare and effective, and I like head trips in general (and am very unconcerned with the notion of "truth"), so this works for me.

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Oct 13, 2007

Modern Hermeneut rated it:

As an essayist, Slater occasionally strikes gold, but this longer work is ruined by her inelegant posturing. It's an UNintentional exercise in narcissism masquerading as an intentional exercise in narcissism.

The only thing that recommends this memoir is the extended analogy Slater draws between the erotic pleasure/pain of double-penetration and the cognitive dissonance of a corpus colostomy (where they split the brain down the middle). I had to reread this section multiple times be More...

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Feb 11, 2009

Mel rated it:

Deftly written to leave you wondering whether the autobiographical memories the author shares are inspired by her epileptic seizures or sheer imagination. My friend Ruth suggested it, and I was pleasantly surprised.

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Jan 14, 2009

Sara rated it:

The book was a bit more graphic than I cared for, but overall I enjoyed the read. I have several ideas, prompted by reading the book, I would enjoy discussing with people who have also read this book.

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Oct 18, 2010

Kate rated it:

I read a chapter out of this book for my "Elements Of Memoir" writing class and I was so intrigued by it that I want to read the whole thing.

And I'm certainly glad I did. This is a very smart and engaging read, in which I didn't care if she had epilepsy or münchausen's or nothing at all. The metaphors of epilepsy and falling that she used as building blocks from which she told her story, worked out fantastically well.

My only hope is that when I sit down to writ More...

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Nov 15, 2008

Farren rated it:

An interesting, if overly clever, premise. The meta- of the premise, the constant knowledge that the author's epilepsy may or may not be real, is wielded handily in the beginning, embarassingly in the intervening chapters, and handily again toward the end.

Without the premise, which has some interesting and timely (very much VERSUS timeless) elements, it's just another memoir--for truly wrenching blood-on-the-page self-destruction memoir goodness, and astonishing writing, Marya Hornb More...

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Apr 14, 2009

Lynn rated it:

Slater is a beautiful writer. She could write about ANYTHING, and I would want to read it. Her personal story is incredible. And, yes, her gifted writing is always metaphorical.

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Aug 23, 2011

Marla rated it:

The best memoir I have read in the last 5 years. It makes you think not only about what a memoir really is, but also about how you would write your own memoir.

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Jan 31, 2009

Nicholas rated it:

I can understand why someone would love this book and why someone else (especially someone who has written a more straightforward memoir of illness) might absolutely hate it, given Slater's blatant, almost aggressive blurring of the line between memoir and fiction, but I'm an enthusiastic member of the former camp rather than the latter. I can't say, based on how she comes across as a character on the page, that I'd want to spend time with the author, but that's really none of my business as a r More...

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Aug 20, 2011

Jeremy rated it:

a labyrinth of lies. very thought provoking. what stories do we tell ourselves? whats real and what do we make up to suit ourselves. loved it.

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Sep 06, 2009

Marisela rated it:

Fresh but too often self conscious. I like the clash of non-fiction and analogy and (epilepsy) to describe struggle. Wanted the book to end.

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Feb 09, 2009

Amy rated it:

This is one of my favorite books. She is one of my favorite suthors. She lives inMa sometime s I think I should try to fined her....

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Dec 16, 2009

Marty rated it:

This book is a "metaphorical memoir," meaning that the author uses metaphor to try to convey what her life was like to the reader, but (not necessarily) telling the actual facts of her life. Throughout the memoir, she "struggles with epilepsy," which is her way of describing what her childhood, or losing her virginity, or living with her mother, really felt like - not describing a real case of epilepsy. I still have no idea whether or not she even has the disease, or if sh More...

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Apr 05, 2009

Silvie rated it:

Probably my favorite memoir thus far. The language is beautiful, as are the images. My wee artist brain is going "nom nom nom."

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