A Paperback for Patry

Today we are celebrating the launch of Patry Francis's The Liar's Diary. Patry, a Gather member as many of you know, has been recuperating from serious illness and surgery. To assist this wonderful Gatherer and author, a number of us are hosting Virtual Book Launch parties. As my part in this venture, I thought I would republish the book review I posted as soon as I finished reading A Liar's Diary in hardcover. It's a great read and very affordable for those of you who haven't had the chance to read it yet. If you like mysteries with psychological undertones and family drama this is the book for you.

                                                                        *****

Gather keeps getting better. I keep bumping into fine writers that I hadn't encountered before and a growing number of outstanding authors. Often these finds are accidental, such as when I am impressed by a comment someone has posted, or while checking out posts within a group. Several weeks ago,  I paid a quick visit to the Gather Essentials: Books group and encountered Patry Francis and knew that she was a writer I wanted to watch.  Several posts and comments later, I knew I had buy her book. When The Liar's Diary arrived in the mail it held me captive for three days. Oh, I wanted to finish it the very day I began to read it, but life and work and family intervened. Three quarters of the way through I no longer accepted interruptions. I put everything on hold and read until the wee hours of the morning.

The Liar's Diary begins innocuously at first – a new teacher arrives at the school where Jeanne Cross, a suburban wife and mother works as a secretary. Ali Mather is beautiful, charismatic, and willful. She is a brilliant composer and violinist. Students, fellow teachers, and even crusty old janitors fall under her spell. Jeanne, whose initial distrust and jealousy melts as Ali and she form an unlikely friendship is similarly captivated despite herself. Ali is outspoken, forthright, and sexual. Jeanne is quite the opposite – a woman who does not know what she thinks or feels and who prefers not knowing rather than attempting to probe the shadowy questions and challenges that confront her on a daily basis.

A strong undertone of psychological and emotional abuse runs through The Liar's Diary, though Francis is such a fine writer that she never labels it as such. Instead, she reveals through narrative the master manipulator that Jeanne's handsome doctor husband has become -- soft spoken, icily rational, subtly demoralizing. She shows Jeanne wither emotionally from his hostility but it is Jaime who suffers the most. His father's contempt and criticism, cloaked under a guise of false camaraderie, send him to the refrigerator for comfort. He gorges on junk food and hides the evidence while his mother, though worrying about his weight, plies him with the food he loves to assuage the pain that she cannot quite get herself to acknowledge.

Ali, though, sees through the façade of niceness that pervades the Cross household and challenges Jeanne to confront it. I will stop here, because to tell you more would be to share too much of a story that grows more complex and intriguing as it builds in intensity.

Francis has delivered a wow of a first book – a powerful, insightful journey into the lives of seemingly ordinary people who, just when you think you've figured them out, show you another side of their character. There are mysteries within mysteries hidden within in this skillfully crafted book. As a friend of mine would say – "run don't walk to get a copy of this book," then settle yourself in a comfortable chair for a grand read.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune named Beryl as a "Best of 2006 Minnesota Authors." Her book The Scent of God  was a "Notable" Book Sense selection for April 2006 and has been nominated by booksellers for a Midwest Booksellers Book Award.