Sometimes I Lie

Feeney, Alice. Sometimes I Lie. New York: Flatiron 2018. Print

First Sentences:

My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me:

1. I am in a coma.
2. My husband doesn't love me anymore.
3. Sometimes I lie.

Description

Here is a complicated story told by a woman just waking from a coma. She can hear everything within earshot in her hospital room, but remembers nothing of how she arrived in this condition other than a vague recollection of being in a car accident. Her other memories are clear right up to that incident. Oh, and she is completely paralyzed, so cannot speak, move, or respond to anyone who comes near her.

Alice Feeny's Sometimes I Lie is a ripping good set-up with a wonderfully untrustworthy narrator (note the book's title) who is trying to unravel a very twisty plot. Her husband, Paul, and sister, Claire, spend time in her hospital room. Although Amber is completely unresponsive, the visitors are all kind, talking to her without expecting a response. Yet somehow, as Amber listens to their words, she realizes each is part of the puzzle she is struggling to remember surrounding her accident. 

My husband and my sister sit on either side of the bed -- my broken body forms the border between them. The stretch-out time the three of us endure is coated in the silence of unspoken words. I can feel walls of them, each letter, each syllable piling up on top of one another to form an unstable house of unanswered questions. Lies form the mortar, holding the walls together.

The narrative switches frequently from Amber's musings about her current situation, to her earlier memories of her husband, to quotations from a diary kept years ago. Each chapter reveals new information about Amber and her former life, as well as about the people around her, but only grudgingly provides any solid clues as to what exactly happened, who is responsible, and what her future holds. And believe me, there are some completely unexpected turns of events that will change your entire perspective on everything about these people and their world.

I won't reveal any more of the novel, but suffice to say that if, by this time, you are intrigued, I urge you to follow your curiosity and settle into a comfy chair to read this delicious story. Absolutely absorbing, challenging, and unpredictable on so many levels. Very highly recommended.

I think about time a lot since I lost it. The hours here stick together and it's hard to pull them apart. People talk about time passing but here, in this room, time doesn't pass at all. It crawls and lingers and smears the walls of your mind with muck-stained memories, so you can't see what's in front of behind you. It eats away at those who get washed up on its shores and I need to swim away now, I need to catch up with myself downstream.

Happy reading. 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Bauby, Jean Dominique. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life and Death.   

True memoir by the author who was completely paralyzed by a stroke and experienced the locked-in lifestyle where his brain and senses are completely intact, but he can only move one eyelid. Through a special Yes/No code for each letter of the alphabet, Bauby painstakingly dictates this beautifully-written memoir. Unforgettable.