THE BOOK OF LIES
September 24, 2008
I get on the treadmill at five this morning to read Brad Meltzer's THE BOOK OF LIES, finishing just ahead of our 7am interview. Brad blends mythology and legend and Biblical forces into a thriller, and the threads come together in a fast-paced mesmerizing tale.
This morning, in our interview, Brad tells me that a woman in one of his crowds for the previous book, THE BOOK OF FATE, stood up, and told him an amazing story. She was related to Jerry Siegel who created Superman. She says Jerry's father was gunned down, so the boy developed a character who was bullet-proof.
The main character in THE BOOK OF LIES, Cal, is a failed government agent, who, as a young child saw his father shove his mother -- her head hit the corner of a drawer -- and she was killed. So Cal lost both his parents in one night. He never sees his dad after he is released from prison -- until Cal finds his long-lost father Lloyd lying for dead in a park. That's when the adventure kicks into high gear.
THE BOOK OF LIES is really about parents and children. Brad laughs and says "I've written the same book eight times."
Brad tells me that a scene between Lloyd's young girlfriend, Serena, and Cal, comes from a conversation that he and I had had about my childhood last year when I visited Florida. Brad changes the age in the book, from my four-and-a-half to Serena's eleven, and he changes the specifics of Serena's memory. Brad says what I told him inspired him to write this into Serena's character.
She says "Do you think you're the only one whose life didn't turn out the way they dreamed, Cal? When I was eleven years old, my mother married a man who...well, shouldn't have been around eleven-year old girls...I still pay for those years...when I finally told my mom, she threw me out because she couldn't handle that it might actually be true." Then Serena reflects on how it felt to go out and splash in a puddle, like one she used to jump in back when the family could afford camp, and how reliving that moment was blissful.
What Brad tells me -- and what I read -- gives me goosebumps. It makes what I went through all the more real.
What Brad doesn't know, is that Serena was my favorite name when I was a kid.
Hours after reading the book and after the interview, tears begin falling softly down my cheeks. His message settles deep into my bones, that we must accept ourselves for who we are, and that we must tell our stories.
Permission is a mighty thing.
I get on the treadmill at five this morning to read Brad Meltzer's THE BOOK OF LIES, finishing just ahead of our 7am interview. Brad blends mythology and legend and Biblical forces into a thriller, and the threads come together in a fast-paced mesmerizing tale.
This morning, in our interview, Brad tells me that a woman in one of his crowds for the previous book, THE BOOK OF FATE, stood up, and told him an amazing story. She was related to Jerry Siegel who created Superman. She says Jerry's father was gunned down, so the boy developed a character who was bullet-proof.
The main character in THE BOOK OF LIES, Cal, is a failed government agent, who, as a young child saw his father shove his mother -- her head hit the corner of a drawer -- and she was killed. So Cal lost both his parents in one night. He never sees his dad after he is released from prison -- until Cal finds his long-lost father Lloyd lying for dead in a park. That's when the adventure kicks into high gear.
THE BOOK OF LIES is really about parents and children. Brad laughs and says "I've written the same book eight times."
Brad tells me that a scene between Lloyd's young girlfriend, Serena, and Cal, comes from a conversation that he and I had had about my childhood last year when I visited Florida. Brad changes the age in the book, from my four-and-a-half to Serena's eleven, and he changes the specifics of Serena's memory. Brad says what I told him inspired him to write this into Serena's character.
She says "Do you think you're the only one whose life didn't turn out the way they dreamed, Cal? When I was eleven years old, my mother married a man who...well, shouldn't have been around eleven-year old girls...I still pay for those years...when I finally told my mom, she threw me out because she couldn't handle that it might actually be true." Then Serena reflects on how it felt to go out and splash in a puddle, like one she used to jump in back when the family could afford camp, and how reliving that moment was blissful.
What Brad tells me -- and what I read -- gives me goosebumps. It makes what I went through all the more real.
What Brad doesn't know, is that Serena was my favorite name when I was a kid.
Hours after reading the book and after the interview, tears begin falling softly down my cheeks. His message settles deep into my bones, that we must accept ourselves for who we are, and that we must tell our stories.
Permission is a mighty thing.
Labels: book review, Brad Meltzer, The Book of Lies, transcending the trauma
posted by Diana Page Jordan @ 4:19 PM
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