A true story based on lies. . - books - book review

New Internationalist, Dec, 2001 by Peter Whittaker

by Jennifer Clement (Canongate, ISBN 1 84195 1668).

In her debut novel, The Widow Basqulat, Jennifer Clement retold the story of the short life and tragic death of the graffiti artist Jean Michel Basquiat. Clement is an established and talented poet and her writing style elegantly mirrored the nature of Basquiat's brief arc of fame.

Style is to the fore once again in Clement's latest novel, A True Story Based on Lies. Set in Mexico, the story is told through the voices of two of the central characters who take it in turns to tell their own version of 'truth'. We learn that Leonora, a poor teenager, has come to Mexico City in search of work. Taken on in the household of the affluent and patrician O'Conner family, she attracts the predatory sexual attention of the master of the house. She becomes pregnant and, when the child, Aura Olivia, is born, she is brought up as if she were a daughter of Mr O'Conner and his wife. As the dual narratives twist and twine around each other and we gradually recognize the storytellers, a tale emerges that scours the roots of possession, belonging and transcendental sorrow.

A True Story Based on Lies is at once a deeply moving account of a skewed relationship in a household and an elegant exploration of the tenacious power of class and sex inequalities. This is an unusual and graceful book that, in beautiful and precise prose, tells of unimaginable human suffering and manages, in an Unexpected climax, to suggest at least the possibility of redemption.

RATING ****

STAR RATING

EXCELLENT *****

VERY GOOD ****

GOOD ***

FAIR **

POOR *