A portrait of a marriage from challenging beginnings to bitterest of ends. Sarah Manguso’s compulsively readable novel was written in a fury after her husband walked out without warning after twenty years together. It centres on Jane who meets and later marries magnetic, handsome John Bridges. Both are aspiring artists, Jane wants to be a writer, John a filmmaker, for a time their creative ambitions seem to unite them until John’s shifting priorities take him in a different direction. Reading this often reminded me of watching pantomimes as a small child, calling out warnings to characters to look out as the villain approached. Right from the start John is so obviously a walking red flag it’s almost unbearable to witness Jane fall for his dubious charms: he represents his previous girlfriend as crazed and clingy; he borrows money he won’t pay back; he sulks when Jane achieves any measure of success in her writing. As Jane’s life becomes intertwined with John’s, he quickly assumes a position of dominance; his numerous failed career plans take her away from her promising career, as he ruthlessly moves them from city to city, rented home to rented home. John has no qualms about reading, then rubbishing, Jane’s work in progress, or interrupting the tutoring sessions she takes on to bolster their shaky income, in order to undermine her teaching. In John’s world, only John’s words count.

Yet Jane not only stays with John, she marries him and later they have a child together. She seems to sleepwalk into what’s set to be a classically abusive relationship characterised by John’s particular brand of gaslighting and contemptuous, coercive control. Manguso’s documentation of Jane’s experiences has a diaristic, aphoristic quality similar in tone and style to her earlier non-fiction, sometimes presenting Jane’s daily life in near-forensic detail. The dynamics of Jane’s marriage reminded me of an only-slightly updated version of the relations between husband and wife in The Yellow Wallpaper. Like Manguso, Jane has an autoimmune blood disorder which can be disabling, and once spent time in a psychiatric facility, facts that John has no qualms in using against her. Labelling her mad and unstable when she dares to question his behaviour towards her, his weaponised incompetence, and dismissive attitudes. As Jane and her child grow dependent on John’s income, he further severs her ties to friends, family and increasingly the literary world in which her growing status threatens to overshadow his limited achievements. All of which Jane recognises but excuses on the basis that friends’ marriages are equally flawed, that ultimately self-sacrifice is what being a wife and mother entails.

From the outside Jane’s apparent acceptance of her situation can seem like wilful self-immolation. But her uneasy acquiescence is a common response to existing in an abusive environment of this nature. As she ruefully remarks she’s in charge of everything, in control of nothing. It’s an environment fostered by a culture in which far too many heterosexual women are socialised to put their needs last, and heterosexual men to put theirs first. Jane’s own mother tells her she simply needs to be nicer to John. This is, after all, the America of the trad wife, a country in which a misogynistic theocracy is slowly taking shape. That’s not to say that Jane’s loss of self or her ordeal is purely an American problem. As the global, viral success of Paris Paloma’s Labour illustrates - with its damning assessment of the expectations placed on heterosexual women in terms of emotional and physical domestic labour - Jane’s position is one many women will recognise, even if it's one they themselves have rejected.

It's a fascinating piece, riddled with instances of muted brutality; an unflinching, incredibly convincing portrayal of casual, devastating betrayals; the systematic demolition, and gradual rebuilding of a woman’s selfhood. Overall, an exceptionally powerful, accomplished novel.

A writer slowly sees her life narrowed down to the role of wife and mother. An insecure and bullying husband and a baby bring on reflections on what she could have been. Sad and enraging, and very real.

Liars
By Sarah Manguso

Jane, a writer grew up fully convinced that she would never marry and had no interest in having children, that is, until she meets John, an artist and filmmaker, who wants all the things she does, a future filled with the pursuit of artistic freedom. What could possibly go wrong?

15 years later Jane's creative hopes and aspirations lie in tatters, her marriage and motherhood having ensnared her in a trap of her own making, while John has no misgivings over exercising his gender advantage at her expense.

" The purpose of marriage was to get stuck, I thought, so that one was forced to fix the marriage in lieu of leaving"

"Even a decent marriage drains the life out of a woman... it really is absolute shit, being a man's wife. I swear up and down that if I outlive this marriage, I will never be with a man again. "

Written in a style similar to journal entries, the story of this failed union is told in first person by Jane, as she vacillates between listing all the ways she feels abused by John, and all the ways she allows him to subsume her. They lie to each other, they lie to other people and they lie to themselves.

This is angry literature, volatile, visceral, the type of outpouring of hurt and recrimination is featuring a lot recently. I am reminded of "Soldier, Sailor" by Claire Kilroy, "Love Novel" by Ivana Sajko and "The Divorce" by Moa Herngren. This might not be totally relatable to every reader, but is smacks of authenticity, with many profound insights into gender inequality and male entitlement.

A quick read that is bound to raise your hackles.

Publication date: 22nd August 2024
Thanks to #NetGalley and #panmacmillan for a review copy in exchange for my honest opinion

This is very different to other books I have read as you really get into the narrators mind. The book is told from wife and mother Janes narrative. The prose is short, sharp and to the point and flowed really well. She feels her husband doesn't value her and marriage is nothing like how she imagined. They move for her husbands job often and she is the one left to look after the house, child and cat and often feels ignored and taken advantage of. Her and her child are often sick and there isn't much of a story line / plot as this is definitely more of a character based book.

This is a story that tells just one version of a rubbish marriage that can be seen echoed in marriages across the world. We get to see the ingrained misogyny that still impacts countlese relationships.

I really felt intruiged as I began the story. I liked the distance created in the writing style, never quite feeling like you get under the skin of the narrator. I think essentially she nevrr knows herself either, so it works.

However, for me it was just too long as it felt really repetitive without giving me extra. I mean I think that's an incredibly true to life portrayal of some relationships like this, but doesnt make for a compelling read.

I did enjoy reading Liars, but wouldnt recommend unless you like the sound of a long look at a miserable marriage.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

"John came home and I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to have such a happy family. It wasn’t happiness; it was the temporary cessation of pain. But I wouldn’t know that for another seven years."

"I’d become a crazy woman rotted out from rage."

The premise of this interested me and I am so glad I picked it up. I devoured this book. It was a book where any spare moment I could, I would pick it up. It follows the relationship, 14 year marriage and breakdown of the marriage between Jane and John. The writing was addictive and the female rage was delicious. It explores the mental, emotional and physical load wives carry in many marriages and how damaging these labour and power imbalances can be. I loved every minute of reading it!

Please see the link for the review

I have reviewed Liars by Sarah Manguso for LoveReading Book recommendation and sales site. I have chosen it as a Liz Pick for September, and also a LoveReading Star Book,

A very honest depiction of how a wife can lose herself in a marriage by the self serving actions of her husband. All the way through I kept thinking she should leave, but it was the hateful husband who abandoned her!

'A nuclear family can destroy a woman artist. I’d always known that. But I’d never suspected how easily I’d fall into one anyway.'

Oh my god, this book. I read it in an afternoon and my whole body got tenser and tenser as I did. It's an excoriating, incisive post-mortem of a marriage: who is complicit, who is harmed, and how it all falls apart. Jane is an author who believes that marrying John, a charismatic artist, will insulate her from the traps of domesticity. After all, they're both artists. But even while she manages to write novel after novel, John, threatened by her success, narrows and narrows the scope of her life: he repeatedly bankrupts them, drags them from city to city and, after they have a child, is practically absent. But the worst part is the gaslighting, by which he convinces Jane that her needs are abnormal and her company is unwelcome. I was struck, over and over, by the brilliance of the author in creating two completely believable people. John doesn't realise what he's doing, not fully, and neither does Jane until it's too late. But in this portrait of a marriage, I was on the edge of my seat waiting for it all to crumble. What an incredible book.

An escape into the oil’s and breakdown of a marriage. I found this difficult going and was just not a book for me

This hugely depressing portrait of a marriage is well written and a fast read. The main stumbling block for me was the character of John, the husband, who was so clearly selfish, unlikeable and obnoxious, that I couldn’t imagine why anyone would go out with them for any length of time, let alone marry them. Felt quite furious for the first bit of the novel, then got into the writing style (it is bleakly funny at times).

Unfortunately, I really disliked this book. The writing is very disjointed and, although I am very aware that this is intentional, I couldn’t connect with it.
The narrative centres on a married woman who details in candid detail (but without any description or flow) years of alleged abuse and gaslighting. The novel read more like random diary entries than an actual story and this is perhaps why I failed to connect with it. There was a definite lack of momentum; again, this was probably intentional, but it lacked something for me.
I am sure opinions Will be divided and others will love this book!

The only word I feel is apt for this book is stunning. It did take me a couple of tries to get into as I wasn't used to reading books like this. Short paragraphs and chapters, almost staccato like speech patterns. Sometimes a sentence seemed like a non sequitur and I felt like I was missing parts of the story. But once I got into it I understood what it was trying to achieve.
We are reading about a toxic marriage from the point of view of Jane. Her husband John is an artist and she is a writer, her star far eclipses his and his jealousy and narcissism gradually begin poisoning the marriage and grinding Jane down. Once they have a child, never given a name, Jane is tied even tighter to the marriage, determined to see it through. Her anger and frustration is obvious as John becomes ever more distant. There are occasional glimpses of why they became a couple, the sexual attraction was strong and there was love between them. The eventual breakdown of the marriage comes as a shock and is written so realistically it is painful. One part of the writing I thought was absolute genius and totally relatable was her fear of eating anything she might choke on as there was no other adult to deliver the Heimlich manoeuvre.
Very cleverly written book, it was a difficult read because it was so raw but extremely relatable.

This book me caught me off guard with how raw the story comes across. Someone told Sarah Manguso “write what you know,” and she went for it. I read in an interview that this was a cathartic book for her to write at the end of her marriage, and that breaks my heart. This is a story that goes beyond plot. This book carries the weight of real trauma caused by egotistical men. It’s about the blurry lines that define our most personal relationships. It’s about the toxicity we endure in an attempt to tell ourselves that we’re the type of good girls who give everything. And then it’s about climbing out of the deep dark hole you have been isolated in. It’s brutal and beautiful and I already bought a physical copy to keep in my library forever. I highly recommend it to everyone!

Is it Halloween already? Because I just read my first horror story of 2024.

Jane and John fall in love and get married. And this is where it all goes to pot. Jane is a successful writer. She had a plan. But then she became a wife. She probably would have been fine if she was someone else's wife but she married John; an egotistical artist who can't seem to differentiate between wife and slave. If gaslighters got awards, he would win it. He made huge family decisions by himself without a thought of how they would impact Jane and while Jane raged on the inside, she reminded herself that she loved him and would continue to give the marriage 200% (that extra 100 was probably to compensate for John's 0% contribution).

I loved this book. I was completely engrossed in Jane's complex feelings for John as I was constantly hoping she would do something to knock him off all of the pegs he was on. I loved the rage, I loved the you-have-to-laugh-because-you-can't-cry undercurrent that ran throughout, and I also loved that the writer was writing what is unfortunately, a reality for many women. Because I don't think what happens inside a bad marriage is talked about enough. The short passages had a staccato like feel to them which was perfect for this type of tale as I could read, pause and absorb without losing too much momentum.

If you're not married and you read this book, don't let it put you off putting a ring on it! Not all marriages are this much of a train wreck. But if you are married and you recognise yourself or your partner in this book, please get help. This is not love.

Jane married, thinking she and her husband will be equals in love, life, creativity, and family, but after becoming a mither, figures out that's not the case as his ego, needs, and wants bury her.

Even Jane's initial descriptions of John make him sound pretentious and egotistical, and lay a clear diagram about who he already was, which was toxic, sexist, and narcissistic. But she was young and smitten, and this was written in past tense by an older and wiser Jane, so I facepalmed my way forwards.

But wow this lady was utterly clueless. The guy had big, flashing warning lights over his head right away. I found myself trying really hard to sympathise and mostly failing. She deluded herself from day one and then was shocked when her delusions fell apart.

I couldn't like her. I couldn't stand him. I really struggled to get through this book, I'm really sorry. I wanted to like it, I was hoping for something very different to what I got.

‘In the beginning I was only myself. Everything that happened to me, I thought, was mine alone.’
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I’m starting this post with the simple plea to please pre order this book… it truly blew me away. I adored the writing style, the story was beyond captivating and I just couldn’t put it down. So now you’ve pre ordered it… here’s what it’s about
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A searing novel about being a wife, a mother, and an artist, and how marriage makes liars out of us all.
When Jane, an aspiring writer, meets filmmaker John Bridges, they both want the same things: to be in love, to live a successful creative life, and to be happy. When they marry, Jane believes she has found everything she was looking for, including—a few years later—all the attendant joy and labor of motherhood. But it’s not long until Jane finds herself subsumed by John’s ambitions, whims, and ego; in short, she becomes a wife.
As Jane’s career flourishes, their marriage starts to falter. Throughout the upheavals of family life, Jane tries to hold it all together—that is, until John leaves her.
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I truly can say I don’t think I’ve read a novel like this, it felt so real, so honest, so jarring at times and just a constant pouring out of emotion and feeling onto the page. This is my first Sarah Manguso also, and YOU BET I’ll be exploring the backlist ASAP!
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Thank you SO much to Picador for sending me an early copy of this one, it’s not a book I’ll be forgetting any time soon!

A Punch..
Powerful insight into the disintegration of a relationship and what it ultimately means to become a wife. The lies and the betrayal, the madness and the despair of a toxic and abusive relationship are laid bare and exposed relayed in a clipped and snappy manner. A punch and a therapeutic one indeed.

Jane had ordered a la carte and gotten everything she’d wanted. She told John that he would have to work consistently and effortfully to sabotage what they had.

John did not want to be the unsuccessful partner of the successful person. He was just being honest. Was a seat at the table too much to ask? “We’re a team,” he said. Then he left without her.

They had been dating for two years, and she was about to turn thirty-five. She’d spent ten years repeatedly choosing the wrong people, leaving good ones because she believed she deserved only the ruined people. She had wanted that part of her life over already, and she was glad it finally was.

She was a real wife now, all she needed was for him to share in the housework, have one date a week with her, two weekly intimate sessions, and pay her back the seven grand he still owed her.

He slapped her face playfully, but it was too hard. It felt like a parlour game.

She was a liar… she just didn’t know it yet.

This book examines a marriage where even the word husband feels unsafe, and you feel uncomfortably complicit in the deepest parts of Jane’s pain where she’s trapped between neither wanting divorce, nor a disdainful partner blind to the consequences of his behaviour. This was an incredible read where the thin line between love and hate is irrevocably crossed. I could not look away, and yet I could neither bear witness at times to the brutality of this modern-day marriage story.

I would like to thank #NetGalley for sending me this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Liars by Sarah Manguso

The story of Jane and John, a 14-year relationship, one chlld and multiple moves across the US.

Brilliant! An amazing literary feat to fit 14 years into one novel and do it so successfully. I loved the way the story was told in short, sharp bursts. Loved and empathised with Jane's rage at the artist to house/everything manager journey. And really loved the last bit of the novel and Jane's 'realisation' (no spoilers!). Very VERY highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.