About the Book
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'Made me almost tearful with gratitude that a book as clever as this could give such uncomplicated pleasure ... And when you find a book like this, you grab it, and you hold it close.' JOHN SELF
'A delight ... As funny and vivid as Dickens, as moving and memorable as Nabokov ... An extraordinarily large-hearted work.' THE CRITIC
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mountweazel, noun: a fake entry deliberately inserted into a dictionary or work of reference. Often used as a safeguard against copyright infringement.
In the final year of the nineteenth century, Peter Winceworth has reached the letter 'S', toiling away for the much-anticipated and multi-volume Swansby's New Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Overwhelmed at his desk and increasingly uneasy that his colleagues are attempting to corral language and regiment facts, Winceworth feels compelled to assert some sense of individual purpose and exercise artistic freedom, and begins inserting unauthorised, fictitious entries into the dictionary.
In the present day, young intern Mallory is tasked with uncovering these mountweazels as the text of the dictionary is digitised for modern readers. Through the words and their definitions she finds she has access to their creator's motivations, hopes and desires. More pressingly, she must also field daily threatening anonymous phone calls. Is a suggested change to the dictionary's definition of marriage (n.) really that controversial? What power does Mallory have when it comes to words and knowing how to tell the truth? And does the caller really intend for the Swansby's staff to 'burn in hell'?
As their two narratives combine, Winceworth and Mallory must discover how to negotiate the complexities of an often nonsensical, untrustworthy, hoax-strewn and undefinable life.
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The Liar's Dictionary explores themes of trust and creativity, naming the unnameable, and celebrates the rigidity, fragility and absurdity of language. It is an exhilarating debut novel from a formidably brilliant young writer.
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'Eley Williams's debut novel, The Liar's Dictionary, is a lexicographical delight.' OBSERVER
'Deft and clever, refreshing and rewarding ... An assured and satisfying writer, her language rich and intricate and her characters rounded enough to be sympathetic and lampoonist enough to be terribly funny.' LITERARY REVIEW
'[The] most exciting of young British writers ... Williams luxuriates in words and wordplay, in definition and precision and invention ...The Liar's Dictionary is a public joy, and Eley Williams a free-spirited literary kook with bags of potential.' BIG ISSUE
'A singular, hilarious, word-drunk novel, which I suspect will be seen in the future as a classic comic novel.' DAVID HAYDEN, IRISH TIMES
'The Liar's Dictionary is the book I was longing for ... Positively intoxicated with the joy and wonder of language ... Eley Williams brings erudition and playfulness - and lovely sweetness - to every page.' BENJAMIN DREYER, New York Times bestselling author of DREYER'S ENGLISH
'This tale of lexical intrigues is an absolute joy to read! It's gloriously inventive and playful, but with just the right amount of heart.' LUCY SCHOLES
© Eley Williams 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020
About the Author :
Eley Williams lectures at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her short story collection Attrib. and Other Stories won the James Tait Black Prize and the Republic of Consciousness Prize and was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. The Liar’s Dictionary is her debut novel.
Review :
I have just read Eley Williams’s forthcoming novel The Liar’s Dictionary, a singular, hilarious, word-drunk novel, which I suspect will be seen in the future as a classic comic novel.
This tale of lexical intrigues is an absolute joy to read! It's gloriously inventive and playful, but with just the right amount of heart.
The Liar's Dictionary ... made me almost tearful with gratitude that a book as clever as this could give such uncomplicated pleasure ... Williams's triumph in The Liar's Dictionary is to bring together two people a century apart with a unifying comic vision ... and brilliant set pieces involving parties and pelicans, all in the service of an inquiry into language and words ... when you find a book like this, you grab it, and you hold it close.
Eley Williams is enraptured by the metaphysical intimations of language ... A delight. Williams handles their respective stories with a gripping command of the development of her plot...dazzling clarity of thought and vision, an extraordinarily fecund capacity for imaginative compassion. ... Gloriously full of gently sardonic asides; charmingly deadpan divagations; and an aptitude for the choreography of cartoon and slapstick that is as funny and vivid as Dickens, as moving and memorable as Nabokov ... For all its exuberance, however, this is ultimately a gentle and reflective book ...The Liar's Dictionary stands as an extraordinarily large-hearted work of obeisance to the lexicographical belief in the "transformative power of proper attention paid to small things", and as an ennoblingly expansive guide to the plangent lineaments of love.
The Liar's Dictionary is deft and clever, refreshing and rewarding ... Words and meaning are of paramount importance in this novel. Williams's naming conventions are Dickensian in their symbolism ... Williams is an assured and satisfying writer, her language rich and intricate and her characters rounded enough to be sympathetic and lampoonist enough to be terribly funny. Her writing owes something to Wodehouse but more to Waugh in his most amusing of disgruntled humours. In both storylines, there is a mystery to be uncovered and a dramatic - and violent - event to be endured. In neither are these the main focus. Rather, it is the connection between Mallory and Winceworth, as we watch each struggle with love, life and speaking their mind, that makes the book so delightful.
An improbably enchanting, rollicking novel about two generations of put-upon London lexicographers, The Liar's Dictionary is positively intoxicated with the joy and wonder of language, both authentic and, often hilariously, counterfeit, and I can assure you that it's quite the contact high. Eley Williams brings erudition and playfulness-and lovely sweetness-to every page.
[The] most exciting of young British writers ... [A] playful word wrangler ... Williams luxuriates in words and wordplay, in definition and precision and invention ... Both main characters are a joy ... Winceworth in particular could have wandered from the pen of Kingsley Amis ... The Liar's Dictionary is a public joy, and Eley Williams a free-spirited literary kook with bags of potential.
a lexicographical delight
A playful delight ... A virtuoso performance full of charm ... It's simultaneously a love story, an office comedy, a sleuth mystery and a slice of gaslit late Victoriana ... Recalls the early stories of Ali Smith, whose intellectually curious, free-range spirit Williams shares ... Williams keeps in sight big questions about language and identity. But as in Attrib. there's nothing arid about these investigations: this is a novel full of fun. Williams writes with fine comic timing, in prose glinting with goodies ... Throughout, you feel in the safe hands of a storyteller dedicating their talent to our pleasure. The Liar's Dictionary is a glorious novel - a perfectly crafted investigation of our ability to define words and their power to define us.
There are a couple of first novels that I've been intrigued enough by their publicists to set on my personal hope-to-read pile: Eley Williams's The Liar's Dictionary
