false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg 71960 2 One has good reason to be suspicious of a book that calls itself a "metaphorical memoir." If a metaphor substitutes one thing for another to which it's not ordinarily related, and a memoir relates the personal experiences of the author, then a metaphorical memoir would be... well, lying, if we're going to get technical about it. Or it could be <I>Lying</I>, in which case, hold that judgment and lay all categories aside: here is a book so stunningly contrary it deserves a whole genre to itself. <p> Lauren Slater may have grown up with epilepsy. Or she may have Munchausen syndrome, "also called factitious illness," also called lying. Or, quite possibly, she has never had any of the above, and all her exquisite evocations of auras and grand mal seizures are merely well-researched symbolic descriptions of her psychic state. In a chapter that's disguised as an extended letter to her editor (and impishly titled "How to Market This Book") she defends her decision to call the work nonfiction: <blockquote> Why is what we feel less true than what is? Supposing I simply feel like an epileptic, a spastic person, one with a shivering brain; supposing I have chosen epilepsy because it is the most accurate conduit to convey my psyche to you? Would this not still be a memoir, <I>my memoir</I>? </blockquote> Slater is peering down a slippery slope here, and for all its manifest brilliance, the pyrotechnics of its prose, reading <I>Lying</I> can be an unnerving experience--sort of like hanging out with a compulsive liar, actually. (It's no help to find out that "after all, a lot, or at least some, or at least a few, of the literal facts are accurate.")<p> But if Slater is playing with our heads, she's not doing so for fashionable postmodern reasons. <I>Lying</I>'s bag of tricks emerges from some complex and deeply felt ideas about form, reality, and consciousness itself--and what's more, it's an extraordinary memoir, "true" or not. A field full of nuns, their windblown habits tipping them over into the snow; an electric brain stimulator that makes a patient see colors and taste her own words; Slater rolling in mounds of Barbadian sugar and then running back to her mother, coated like candy--who cares whether any of these actually happened? In the end, <I>Lying</I> is fundamentally true, just as a great novel or indeed any great work of art is true: in a way that has nothing to do with fact. <I>--Mary Park</I> 1430375 2000 Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir total:311|5:107|4:113|3:67|2:19|1:5| 311 1231 466 56 71960 014200006X 9780142000069 306 56 3.96 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71960.Lying_A_Metaphorical_Memoir 3 1 false Wed Aug 01 10:19:52 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 01 10:19:52 -0700 2007 more...]]> 71960 014200006X 9780142000069 306 56 3.96 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71960.Lying_A_Metaphorical_Memoir 5 0 false Mon Aug 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 03 13:09:01 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 03 13:15:52 -0700 2009 more...]]> 71960 014200006X 9780142000069 306 56 3.96 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71960.Lying_A_Metaphorical_Memoir 5 0 false Sun Apr 06 17:33:58 -0700 2008 Sun Apr 06 17:36:36 -0700 2008 more...]]> 71960 014200006X 9780142000069 306 56 3.96 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71960.Lying_A_Metaphorical_Memoir 5 0 false Wed Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Sat Mar 17 13:12:20 -0700 2007 Sat Mar 17 13:12:54 -0700 2007 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 r...more...]]> 71960 014200006X 9780142000069 306 56 3.96 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71960.Lying_A_Metaphorical_Memoir 4 0 false Sat Mar 28 08:37:55 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 28 08:40:16 -0700 2009 more...]]> 71960 014200006X 9780142000069 306 56 3.96 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71960.Lying_A_Metaphorical_Memoir 5 0 false Mon Jan 21 04:15:15 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 31 15:44:25 -0700 2008 more...]]> 71960 014200006X 9780142000069 306 56 3.96 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71960.Lying_A_Metaphorical_Memoir 4 0 false Thu Dec 25 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 25 19:12:59 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 25 19:14:43 -0800 2008 71960 014200006X 9780142000069 306 56 3.96 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71960.Lying_A_Metaphorical_Memoir 3 0 false Fri Jan 04 11:50:59 -0800 2008 Mon Apr 07 10:47:18 -0700 2008 more...]]> 71960 014200006X 9780142000069 306 56 3.96 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71960.Lying_A_Metaphorical_Memoir 2 0 false Sat Oct 13 04:45:44 -0700 2007 Sat Oct 13 05:10:55 -0700 2007
The only thing that recommends this memoir is the extended analogy Slater draws...more...]]> 71960 014200006X 9780142000069 306 56 3.96 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71960.Lying_A_Metaphorical_Memoir 4 0 false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Wed Feb 11 20:02:24 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 11 20:05:10 -0800 2009 71960 014200006X 9780142000069 306 56 3.96 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71960.Lying_A_Metaphorical_Memoir 3 0 false Thu Jan 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 14 11:30:49 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 14 11:32:35 -0800 2009 71960 014200006X 9780142000069 306 56 3.96 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71960.Lying_A_Metaphorical_Memoir 3 0 false Sat Nov 15 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 14 15:05:17 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 15 13:47:18 -0800 2008
Without the premise, which has ...more...]]> 71960 014200006X 9780142000069 306 56 3.96 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71960.Lying_A_Metaphorical_Memoir 5 0 false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Tue Apr 14 08:36:43 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 14 08:38:47 -0700 2009 71960 014200006X 9780142000069 306 56 3.96 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71960.Lying_A_Metaphorical_Memoir 5 1 false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 31 07:40:30 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 31 07:41:02 -0800 2009 more...]]> 71960 014200006X 9780142000069 306 56 3.96 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71960.Lying_A_Metaphorical_Memoir 0 0 false Fri Oct 23 13:33:36 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 13:38:42 -0700 2009 71960 014200006X 9780142000069 306 56 3.96 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71960.Lying_A_Metaphorical_Memoir 3 0 false Sun Sep 06 22:46:28 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 06 22:48:56 -0700 2009 71960 014200006X 9780142000069 306 56 3.96 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71960.Lying_A_Metaphorical_Memoir 5 0 false Mon Feb 09 12:26:32 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 09 12:27:20 -0800 2009 71960 014200006X 9780142000069 306 56 3.96 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71960.Lying_A_Metaphorical_Memoir 4 0 false Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Jun 13 09:00:18 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 13 09:01:15 -0700 2007 more...]]> 71960 014200006X 9780142000069 306 56 3.96 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71960.Lying_A_Metaphorical_Memoir 5 0 false Sun Apr 05 15:44:58 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 05 15:47:06 -0700 2009 71960 014200006X 9780142000069 306 56 3.96 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541m/71960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71960.Lying_A_Metaphorical_Memoir 3 0 false Sat Oct 04 16:40:54 -0700 2008 Sat Oct 04 16:43:58 -0700 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=71960