The Liar

Title: The Liar
Author: Stephen Fry
Published: 1991
Genre: Humour!
Pages: 388


And after Sarah Waters' first book, here's Stephen Fry's! The Liar follows Adrian, an exiled bastard prince turned international jewel thief who, purely by accident, ends up killing an important head of state. He really only meant to steal their priceless signet ring, to bring it to the head of the Moscow mob, to save his long-suffering, cross-dressing lover! In a wild attempt to save his own skin long enough to save the lover, Adrian hops on the Trans-Siberian train, and ends up in a very Agatha Christie -like whodunnit, in a hurry to find a murdered before the murderer -or the mob killers!- get to him. And if you think that's wild, just wait till the ufo's --- oh, now I'm spoilering it.


Full of Mr. Fry's witty and smart humour, and I must admit, as much as I liked the book, which I did, very much so, I am only s-m-r-t so some bits went flying over my head. They whistled pleasantly as they did so. But since not a word of it was true, I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. The ending... ha! "Wait, was that the end? But that was--- oh. Oh! Ohhh! Ha!"


   He was always doing that in these days. Everything he saw became a symbol of his own existence, from a rabbit caught in headlights to raindrops racing down a window-pane. Perhaps it was a sign that he was going to become a poet or a philosopher: the kind of person who, when he stood on the sea-shore, didn't see waves breaking on a beach, but saw the surge of human will or the rhythms of copulation, who didn't hear the sound of the tide but hears the eroding roar of time and the last moaning sigh of humanity fizzing into nothingness. But perhaps it was a sign, he also thought, that he was turning into a pretentious wanker.