The Lying Tongue - Andrew Wilson

In The Lying Tongue, we have young Adam Woods, fresh from college, headed to Venice to teach a wealthy son English. It's a fine opportunity to see the world, and he can work on his novel in his off hours. Once he arrives, he learns the boy got himself in a bit of trouble and has been shipped off to New York City for the time being. Because no teenager can get in trouble in the Big Apple.

Adam's at a bit of a loss, but is told there's an elderly gentleman nearby who might need a caretaker. Adam, eager to not return home, takes the offer, and finds himself looking after one Gordon Crace. Crace is the author of one best-selling book, but has spent the past several decades in seclusion, writing nothing. Adam can't help but be intrigued, and the more he noses about, the more intrigued he becomes. Until he decides he'll write Crace's biography on the sly for his first book. Things spin out of control from there.

Reading this produced two almost contradictory reactions in me. On the one hand, the book quickly and easily, so I found myself breezing through it, carried along by the tension in the story. On the other hand, I almost didn't want to keep reading, as I found the main characters both increasingly unpleasant as the book progressed.

Wilson does a lot of repetition, not of dialogue, but of plot elements and backstory. Characters making disastrous decisions in their love life is one, deceit and justification of it is another. Given the thread of theft that runs through the book, it makes me wonder if the point is there are no new stories, only variations on old stories. The only difference is the names.

One other bit of advice if you plan to read the book, don't read the book jacket first. It kind of spoiled the ending, because I knew to be waiting for it. I didn't know the precise form it would take, but I knew it was coming.