Very Cold People was one of my books of 2022. Written in spare, crisp prose, it’s a bleak novella about an abusive childhood, extraordinarily powerful. Liars is the equally bleak story of a dysfunctional marriage told from the perspective of the wife.
Jane and John meet in their thirties, their relationship growing out of a powerful physical attraction. He suggests they both apply for a year’s residency in Athens but while she is awarded the prize for writing he fails to win the art prize, joining her after a few months, unable to contain his jealousy of her success, flirting outrageously and sulking, setting a pattern for their future together. Neither had planned to have children, but a few years into their marriage Jane becomes pregnant with their son. Her successful writing career stalls in the face of childcaring, homemaking and hauling John out of various scrapes, her financial dependence forcing her to trail after him as he moves from one job to another. After fourteen years of telling herself she should be grateful for her happy family, the financial security John has somehow delivered and the resurrection of her career, she’s faced with the truth of her marriage’s dysfunction.
Manguso unfolds her fragmented narrative in stark, striking prose. We have only one side of the story and there are occasional hints that John may not be the only liar, not least from the title, but Jane’s lies appear to be to herself, convincing herself that her marriage is all that it should be. A tale of bad behaviour, manipulation, and misery, there’s a feeling of autofiction about it, borne out by a little internet research, although to what extent isn’t clear.