Blagging A Bestseller (The Liar)

I know I have professed my deep admiration for Stephen Fry in a previous post (reviewing Fry's book Making History), so I won't bore you with all that again. However, my interest in the actor/comedian/presenter/writer/genius (okay, okay) was re-awakened when I recently watched the television documentary which explores his battle with manic depression. In the aftermath of that insightful, yet tragic show I pulled out copy of The Liar that had been sitting in my wardrobe for a fair few months.

Published in 1991, The Liar was Fry's much-awaited first novel. It received rave reviews and became a number one bestseller.

Drawing heavily on many situations, settings and people from his own life, Fry's debut novel tells the story of protagonist Adrian Healey, a compulsive liar and extrovert whose dishonesty gets him in way over his head. The style is similar to the wacky, almost fantastical storytelling of Making History, but on a smaller scale.

When it was published, the main criticism of this novel was its extreme similarities to Fry's own life. Of course, every writer draws from life experience but, after reading Fry's autobiography, I have to agree with these criticisms to an extent. However, I also feel that the critics may have underestimated Fry's perceptiveness and ability to predict this feedback. Many of the situations from the book are surely embellished (and many are works of complete falsity), yet this merging of fiction and non-fiction works well to keep readers wondering about Fry's past.

It is hard for me to determine whether or not I truly liked this novel because I am biased. I suppose my feelings are best compared to those of watching a film with a favourite actor and appreciating his/her performance, but ultimately feeling disappointed by the overall package.

Nonetheless Fry's personality shines through and there are many a laugh-out-loud moment in this book. In retrospect, this was not a bad start to what is a thriving writing career for Stephen Fry, who (fortunately for the British public) is getting better with age.

Making History Entertaining... But Not As Entertaining As It Could Be (Making History)

I love Stephen Fry. His "quintessential English" persona always confirms for me what I enjoy about living in the UK. His talents (acting, writing, presenting) are endless and his intelligence is astounding.

But enough from the Stephen Fry fan club...

Making History is his third novel. Written in 1997, it won the Sideways Award for Alternate History and received critical acclaim. After reading and enjoying his autobiography Moab Is My Washpot, I decided I needed to discover Fry's fictional writing abilities.

The novel is written in the first person of Michael "Pup" Young. He is a young history student at Cambridge on the verge of finishing his doctoral thesis on the early life of Adolf Hitler. Michael's life is that of fairly normal academic (he lives with his girlfriend Jane, wakes up with hangovers after college parties, etc.) until he meets Professor Leo Zuckerman who takes an interest in his thesis and takes Michael, quite literally, to another world.

This is an extremely enigmatic, fast-paced piece work of science fiction. Yet it contains so much information, theory and detail that there is barely time to take in what is happening and truly enjoy the story. It is almost as if you can see Fry's genius thought process on the pages--he's come up with this brilliant central idea and now he needs to get it down onto paper as fast as he can.

I was quite taken by this book and its characters and themes, but I don't think Fry did his ideas and pace justice. It was so action-packed and wonderfully dynamic that, dare I say it, I think it would've been better suited to television or film. In fact, some parts of the novel are written in script format and this does genuinely help the action move along and flow more readily.

But I suppose it is quite obvious Fry can write for television and film (Fry and Laurie, Bright Young Things) so I guess he deserves praise for writing in the purer form. Still, I would be genuinely pleased to see this story in the form of a mini-series or similar on our television screens.