"Liars" by Sarah Manguso is a stunningly introspective work that delves into the intricacies of truth, deception, and the complexities of human relationships. Manguso’s prose is both sharp and lyrical, capturing the nuances of everyday life while exploring deeper philosophical questions about authenticity and self-perception.

The narrative weaves personal anecdotes with broader observations, creating a rich tapestry that reflects on the nature of lies—both those we tell ourselves and those we share with others. Manguso’s ability to articulate the tension between reality and illusion is compelling, inviting readers to reflect on their own experiences with honesty and vulnerability.

Each chapter is meticulously crafted, blending memoir with essay-like reflections that are both poignant and thought-provoking. The writing is incisive, often layered with wit and insight, making it an engaging read from start to finish.

Overall, "Liars" is a profound exploration of the human condition that resonates long after the final page. Sarah Manguso invites us to confront our own truths, making this book a must-read for anyone interested in the complexities of honesty and identity. Highly recommended!

this is well-written i suppose but i just found it really baffling.

i think it's maybe a gay thing idk but i find books about women who hate their husbands so boring. i'm trapped in the throes of the patriarchy! babe leave him.

well crafted, but the material just left me cold. it's probably a me problem.

This compelling novel by Sarah Manguso offers a stark portrayal of a marriage that evolves from challenging beginnings to a bitter end. Written in a burst of inspiration after her husband unexpectedly left after twenty years, it centers on Jane, an aspiring writer, and her charismatic husband, John Bridges, a filmmaker. Initially united by their creative ambitions, their relationship deteriorates as John's shifting priorities take precedence.

From the outset, John embodies a series of red flags, exhibiting manipulative behavior that Jane fails to recognize. He belittles her success, undermines her teaching, and exerts dominance as their lives intertwine. Despite his toxic traits—such as gaslighting and contempt—Jane marries him and they have a child, gradually succumbing to an abusive dynamic.

Manguso's prose features a diary-like quality, capturing Jane's daily struggles with a precision that mirrors her earlier non-fiction work. The relationship echoes the themes in The Yellow Wallpaper, with Jane's health issues being weaponized by John, who labels her "mad" when she questions his behavior. As John further isolates Jane from her support network, she rationalizes her sacrifices in the name of motherhood.

Jane’s apparent acceptance of her situation may seem like self-immolation, yet it reflects a common response to abuse, shaped by societal expectations that prioritize men's needs over women's. This cultural critique resonates beyond American borders, as evidenced by the global reception of works like Paris Paloma’s Labour, which critiques the burdens placed on women.

Overall, Manguso crafts a powerful, nuanced exploration of the gradual erosion and rebuilding of a woman's selfhood, marked by instances of muted brutality and systemic betrayal. It's an exceptionally compelling novel that captures the complexities of abusive relationships.

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Intense and brilliant.

An exceptional exploration of a coercive relationship.and an inevitable divorce.

I read this in just over 24 hours. It made me feel so much rage for Jane, the protagonist. I want all my married friends to read it. And those who are thinking about it.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

A painfully raw novel, Liars is a through the keyhole peek into the blossoming of love and the slow unravelling of the marriage that ensues. It's equally addictive whilst being ever so slightly repellent in its wholly unvarnished, warts and all, truthfulness on the ins and outs of any relationship. I've not read anything quite so honest and authentic.

Jane and John are both artists who meet, become entangled in each other and eventually marry. Jane narrates this novel much like vignettes or diary entries. She shares happenings in their lives and her thoughts which many of us might, in an unguarded moment, indulge in but would never voice to another person. Her view is utterly unflattering and flawed, emotion driven but full of gut instinct inclinations she would have done well to pay closer attention to. John isn't the best husband and their relationship seems to descend into the level of Jane being his PA, moving house at the drop of a hat, and sorting all details so life runs smoothly for him. He is selfish and though Jane sees that, she reminds herself that their up and down marriage is better than that of any of their acquaintances.

There is much to be concerned about as time passes and the road gets bumpier for them. Liars is well crafted and wholly observant of the messiness of adult life. Like driving slowly past a car accident, the reader looks on in horror hoping it's not as bad as it seems but knowing it will inflict life-altering changes on the victims. I couldn't put it down.

I enjoyed this book, and related to the protagonist. I really disliked John and struggled to understand what could have drawn anyone to this man.

I related to her general struggles as a parent, the daily slog but beauty and rewarding nature of parenting.

I found the relationship between Jane and John difficult to witness through her eyes but enjoyable to read about.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for gifting me this arc in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I finished this book maybe about a month ago and I still keep thinking about it. It had me absolutely hooked in a compulsive can't-look-away-from-the-car-crash sort of way. I felt anger, I felt anxiety, I felt hopelessness, all encompassed in such a straightforward, precise book which knows exactly why it's been written and what it sets out to accomplish. There's something about it that made me so deeply uncomfortable because of how real it felt, and I think that's a good and a bad thing.
It hits the perfect note between making all the bright red flags shining upon her marriage so perfectly obvious to an outside perspective, while also making us understand that this is a perspective Jane does not have, and the intense bursts of abuse or disillusionment that she experiences are just blips to her, until they start to spiral down with increasing speed and close in on her, at which point the only choice left is only between imploding her whole life or turning to denial, daydream, and other coping mechanisms.
I have seen way too many women in this exact situation for this to not resonate intensely and viscerally and I can only praise the force and rawness with which this book manage to create such an infuriatingly realistic story.

I'm Billy No Mates here. Really didn't connect with the book at all. Unlikeable characters and I found myself questioning why anyone would continue with the marriage.
Lots seem to have loved it so, we are all different but not for me

Thank you to Hogarth and NetGalley for a ebook copy of this novel.

Wow this is a whirlwind of emotions in a such a small novel. Liars is a in-depth analysis of the nuclear family, gender roles, femininity and sexuality. John and Jane are the outline to many relationships and how they begin, as well as how they end. I found myself clenching my jaw in frustration to the behaviour of John and how he managed to get away with it for as long as he did.

But this is also a story about reclaiming one’s self after such a traumatic and emotionally stunting relationship. To reclaim one’s sexuality and spirituality after a divorce is something I only know on a baseline level, but this made me feel as though I was a part of the journey of self discovery.

Overall, I really liked this, and look forward to other books by the author in the future.

Oh lord. So good. Unbearable, and yet unputdownable. Mortifying, blood curdling. Any underlying rage I've been letting simmer or trying to suppress, pushed its way easily to the surface reading this. The adrenaline of it kept me going. Completely devastating, and the most powerful, searing and utterly persuasive argument against marriage, and in effect, men.

I'm so so grateful to have received an ARC of this - tore through half of it in an amazed and horrified daze before it ran out, then rushed to buy a physical copy. It's a lot to stomach, but absolutely an essential read that pulls you along. Have never read an account quite like it, with such visceral and intricate detail of all the unpaid, unappreciated, emotional and physical labour women take on, the reverberating toll of mens weaponised incompetence, and the sickening amount of unseen abuse that is suffered. Sarah is just ingenious and full of unbelievable talent.

4.5.

This is a beautiful book.

The writing is so emotive and such a different voice. It's a funny, sad, deep journey of marriage and motherhood and divorce, the dynamics of relationships, mental health. I found it so incredibly relatable at so many points and was completely riding the waves of Manguso's words.

Sarah Manguso crafts a poignant exploration of truth and deception, weaving her personal experiences with broader themes of memory and identity. I found her prose to be both lyrical and incisive, drawing me into her reflections on the nature of honesty and the lies we tell ourselves and others. The way she navigates complex emotions is a definite highlight, making her insights feel deeply relatable.
However, I did feel that at times the narrative could be a bit meandering, which occasionally detracted from the overall impact of her arguments. While some sections left me wanting more depth, the book ultimately offers a thought-provoking perspective on the human condition. Manguso's ability to blend personal narrative with philosophical musings is commendable, making it a worthwhile read, even if it doesn't fully hit the mark in every chapter.

Liars is one angry book! It tells the story of a disintegrating marriage where both the husband lies to the wife (about his affair) and she in turn lies to herself (that everything was ok when of course it wasn't). Told from the point of view of Jane, the wife in question, her life is traced back to when she first met John, a handsome artist. The staccato paragraphs read rather like a diary without the relevant dates, which adds to the sense of dread and destructiveness in their ongoing 15 year relationship. Jane constantly questions herself as to how she ended up trapped into becoming a traditional wife, moving home constantly to keep up with John's never ending changes of job. In the meantime her own career suffers as a direct result of his lack of success. It's a gripping, if depressing scenario. Many thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the opportunity to read and review this book.

"Elegies are the best love stories because they're the whole story."

Oof, this book! Reading Liars did my blood pressure absolutely no favours. I swear I could feel it rising the angrier the novel made me, and the whole thing is rage-inducing. If you are looking for a compelling story, Sarah Manguso's exploration of the disintegration and dissolution of a marriage fits the bill.

When Jane and John meet they are both artists. Jane, a writer and John, a filmmaker. When John's career pivots into entrepreneurship – to varying degrees of success – Jane's takes a backseat. When they marry and become parents, Jane's life shrinks more as she is consumed by the roles of wife and mother.

Told entirely from Jane's point of view, in stream of consciousness style vignettes, Liars charts their fifteen year relationship and its ultimate downfall. It's incisive. There is a creeping sense of dread throughout, even though we know about the divorce from the get-go. It's rage-inducing. I loved it!

I think naming her characters Jane and John was a genius move because it made me think of Jane Doe and John Doe, which added to the everyman quality of both characters. As if Manguso is saying to the reader, this could be you or someone you know. This is, in many ways, a very ordinary marriage. Yet, it is also utterly destructive.

I was first introduced to Manguso's work during a writing class I took in the early years of the pandemic, and I devoured and adored her non-ficton books shortly afterwards, especially 300 Arguments and The Two Kinds of Decay. Liars is my first time reading Manguso's fiction, and I am so glad I picked it up. I'm off to read her debut novel, Very Cold People.

The pared back, almost removed style of writing in this book really works. It screams of the abject acceptance of a life that wasn't wanted that Jane feels...how did this happen to her? How did she fall into traditional wifedom? Is she unreasonable?
The second-guessing and attempts to convince herself that she is happy in her marriage are heart-breaking to read, the emotion jumps off the pages and lodges in your gut. Jane continually trying to write the story of her marriage in a few sentences shows the things she glosses over or maybe is committing to paper to try and make them really how she sees her life. She feels so utterly trapped and her husband, a gaslight extraordinaire, does nothing to make the reader think any differently. he lives in a parallel reality, where he is the martyr and star, it's all so terribly familiar and depressing...not that the book is depressing, it actually didn't leave me feeling flat. I felt resolute, I wanted to make sure I never allowed this to happen to me and that I would be there if I saw it in my friend's relationships. It felt like a cathartic thing for Sarah Manguso to have written, full of muted rage.

In clipped and matter of fact sentences, Manguso's narrator unflinchingly documents the psychological and emotional fallout of a marriage that is slowly disintegrating. Liars is a very introspective read and it’s too heavy to be read in one sitting.

Sometimes a book just isn’t for you. Wrong time, wrong place.
“So, at his worst, my husband was an arrogant, insecure, workaholic, narcissistic bully with middlebrow taste, who maintained power over me by making major decisions without my input or consent. It could still be worse, I thought”

This one short paragraph sums up this illuminating insight into a totally fractured relationship and marriage. The husband beyond unlikeable, but I also began to run out of sympathy for the wife for not leaving!!

Thank you to the publishers Picador (Pan Macmillan), NetGalley, and the author for providing me with an ARC of Liars.

I'd never read any Sarah Manguso previously, but have heard great things about her writing, and so was really looking forward to delving into this. And it didn't disappoint!

Though there's no denying that this was at times a very difficult read, that doesn't take away from its greatness. Liars is told from the perspective of Jane, who details her 14 year long marriage with John, which at times seems loveless and a marriage of tribulation. We witness the downfall of the marriage. Liars details the realities of motherhood, and more generally, what it means to be a woman.

My blood was BOILINGGGG when reading about John's AUDACITY. I read this in just over a day and I hope that that is testament enough to how great Manguso's writing is and how well she captured womanhood and abusive relationships.

This sounded like one I’d enjoy and it absolutely did not disappoint, I devoured it in 24 hours!!

This book is incredibly powerful and stirred a lot of emotions in me, particularly anger towards John. His behavior and lack of action make him a truly despicable character. The story tackles the tough question of “why didn’t she just leave him?” in a compelling way.

The informal structure of the writing suits the narrative perfectly, helping to convey the intense emotions Jane experiences during the fallout of her marriage. It gave such claustrophobic vibes, sheer frustration and despair for her. So much so, it dragged you in and fully immersed you within the story.

This novel is brutally realistic and absolutely gripping. While I can't say I enjoyed it, I was completely engrossed and was fully obsessed with what I was reading. I'm eager to explore more of this author's work and plan to dive into her earlier books.

Massively recommend for anyone who loves a strongly immersive read that makes you feel everything!

A sharp and unflinching story of motherhood whilst in a toxic marriage. ‘enjoyed’ is probably not the right word but I couldn’t put it down, and the relief I felt when she was finally free of awful useless John!!