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A review by jdscott50
All Men Are Liars by Alberto Manguel
3.0
I'm usually a fan of unorthodox storytelling If it done well and not some parlor trick. Manguel's All Men Are Liars uses all the writing slight-of-hand he can muster, but it cannot hide the weak core of his story. It is a mask that hides nothing, a mystery easily solved, and a story that uses more tricks than content.
The story is being told to you, the reader, as a participant in a mystery. Who is this dead author? Is a struggling brilliant artist or a phony? Did he do it himself or was he killed as apart of a conspiracy? These questions attempt to make the story more interesting than it is. Cyrano de Bergerac meets Rashomon with very obvious similarities, even a confession beyond the grave (even though by then the story is pretty obvious).
It is almost a self-acknowledged fact by the author about its use of obvious techniques and allusions. He even brings in Enrique Vila-Matas' Bartleby & Co. to suggest the non-story here is purposeful. While many of the points and the prose are excellent, it's not enough to hold the story together. The last sections are completely ridiculous. A good story on a writing mystery, but comes up short due to writing parlor tricks.
Favorite parts:
"It is strange how one afternoon can prolong itself to infinity, and several years be reduced to five words. p. 35
"...but when one takes a backward look at history, every decision, every move, each step contributes to the grand finale, complete with drums, clockenspiel, and cymbols." p. 46
"Violent acts render familiar things alien..." p. 71
"I suppose that if we read about ourselves in a book, we wouldn't recognize ourselves..." P 100
We know the game in which the threat is never voiced but the imagination is left to build its own hell, in which the fear of what can happen lends a face and claws to a monster that always remains inside your mind. P 106
Writing is a way of threatening what is not spoken aloud; the shadow of the letters taunts us from between the lines. P 106
Lying that is the great theme of South American literature p 107
The story is being told to you, the reader, as a participant in a mystery. Who is this dead author? Is a struggling brilliant artist or a phony? Did he do it himself or was he killed as apart of a conspiracy? These questions attempt to make the story more interesting than it is. Cyrano de Bergerac meets Rashomon with very obvious similarities, even a confession beyond the grave (even though by then the story is pretty obvious).
It is almost a self-acknowledged fact by the author about its use of obvious techniques and allusions. He even brings in Enrique Vila-Matas' Bartleby & Co. to suggest the non-story here is purposeful. While many of the points and the prose are excellent, it's not enough to hold the story together. The last sections are completely ridiculous. A good story on a writing mystery, but comes up short due to writing parlor tricks.
Favorite parts:
"It is strange how one afternoon can prolong itself to infinity, and several years be reduced to five words. p. 35
"...but when one takes a backward look at history, every decision, every move, each step contributes to the grand finale, complete with drums, clockenspiel, and cymbols." p. 46
"Violent acts render familiar things alien..." p. 71
"I suppose that if we read about ourselves in a book, we wouldn't recognize ourselves..." P 100
We know the game in which the threat is never voiced but the imagination is left to build its own hell, in which the fear of what can happen lends a face and claws to a monster that always remains inside your mind. P 106
Writing is a way of threatening what is not spoken aloud; the shadow of the letters taunts us from between the lines. P 106
Lying that is the great theme of South American literature p 107