What I Saw and How I Lied
As a young adult (really) who missed out on the young adult genre in my teen years, it’s been a real interest of mine to read as much of it as possible. Since I’m considering a career as a teen librarian, it seems appropriate to bone up as much as possible now that I’ve completed school. So, besides taking my normal approach of wandering the library’s bookshelves, as well as reading various blogs, message boards, and social networking sites for recommendations, I thought it would also be worthwhile to make sure to get through books that have been considered for some of the most prestigious writing awards. While I don’t necessarily take a whole lot of stock in them as representative of a genre as a whole, I think they’re a good place to see really good writing. What I Saw and How I Lied was one of the five finalists for the National Book Award for teen writing this year, and, as it turns out, this year’s winner.
Before diving into the book and the story itself, it’s worth noting that Blundell is a prolific writer herself. Interestingly, she writes under a number of pen names, and one of them is Jude Watson — a well-known Star Wars writer! I found this tidbit merely a cool fact when I began the book, but as I came around to the end of the story, I think this may have actually had quite an impact on how the story was told and how I felt about it.
What I Saw and How I Lied begins with the return of Joe Spooner, Evie’s step-father, from assignment in World War II. Evie, Joe, and Beverley celebrate the end of war with a trip to Palm Beach, Florida. Abandoning responsibilities, they head south. When they arrive, the family discovers that Palm Beach is a deserted resort town during the fall, but without too much problem, Joe and Bev befriend the Graysons who are also in town from New York City. While their relationships strengthen, Evie’s eyes are set upon Peter — a boy more than 10 years her senior. As it turns out, Peter served with Joe in the war, and their relationship is not solid.
As the story progresses, we learn about the lies which Evie has grown to accept as truths in her young life about her family and about the war. Simultaneously, we see Evie grow up and discover how emotions — romantic and otherwise — can impact the stories she hears and accepts. While unraveling the lies, tragedy strikes Palm Beach in both the form of a hurricane and in the form of an unlikely boating accident. The accident isn’t what it appears to be, and it is left to Evie to make the decision whether to lie for her family or lie for the man with whom she thinks she’s in love.
One thing Blundell is able to do throughout the story is write. The scene setting and time placement of this story are impeccable. Without question, this book emanates post-war consumption and pleasure. Her descriptions are top notch and her ability to vividly describe feelings, both physical and emotional, is done well and with little cliche. It seems that Blundell’s experience in writing science fiction-fantasy is an asset to this story, as she is able to marry romantic imagery in a fantastical manner, giving it grounding. Likewise, the concept to this story is unique and imaginative, as it pits the coming-of-age tale with a historical moment. Evie is a well-developed, selfish, and self-absorbed character, like any character within this moment would be: she is 16, has everything at her disposal, no responsibilities, and a handsome older guy to chase.
Unfortunately, the book’s strengths seem to lie primarily in these aspects. Blundell’s story is poorly timed and offers a lot of half-baked loose ends that, were they to be pulled together better, would have made a phenomenal story. While Evie is a well-developed character, she’s the only character in the book who has any multitudes to her. Joe and Bev are extremely flat characters, and Joe’s development comes only through dialog between Evie and Peter. And since readers are keenly aware of the strange airs between Peter and Joe, this development is not necessarily the most trustworthy. Likewise, Blundell’s story includes elements that just don’t make sense — while we know that Evie is not beginning school in New York, twice in the story she’s instructed to go work on homework (the first hint of anything school related occurs on page 94 and another on about page 200). These instances are poor plot devices to move the story along while getting Evie out of the central narrative, and any observant reader would realize these don’t make sense since Evie is not in school. Additionally, since this story is set in the late 1940s, she is clearly not completing her education via correspondence or the internet.
Perhaps most frustrating throughout the story is the attempt to weave a German/Jewish struggle on American ground. In the story, we learn that Joe and Mr. Grayson want to purchase the hotel they’re staying at in Palm Beach. However, this deal becomes complicated through the plot device of a phone call from one of Mr. Grayson’s family members. While we had not been introduced to the climate of cultural distrust, this becomes an issue more than half way through the book. Sadly, it’s quite predictable and flat, not to mention cliche. Had Blundell teased this out a little further, perhaps through developing the Grayson characters, it would be more interesting.
It’s at this point in the book, too, that we finally learn what the lies Evie has heard are, and they swarm around these cultural conflicts Joe and Peter experienced while in Europe fighting in the war. Again, Blundell should have brought this out earlier in the story to make it more compelling. Setting a pleasant post-war scene and then filling in lines with tension makes this aspect of the story uneven. While a very minor detail, I found the use of the word “shyster” to describe a non-Jewish lawyer intriguing — whether intentional or not, the word can be construed as a slur. Although it’s such a fitting description, it’s used incorrectly, at the wrong time, or accidentally where it’s used. That said, the writing needed some fine tuning to better emphasize, deemphasize, or clarify ideas. There’s a lot of conflict in my mind over intentionality and accidental luck in terms of these sorts of language choices.
While I think that Blundell has beautiful writing and has a way with capturing and setting a scene and carrying it throughout the book, What I Saw and How I Lied falls short for me in the story department. There are too many plot devices, too many predictable turns, and too many missed opportunities. Likewise, I think this story comes into a very crowded field of books centering around World War II and post-war German/Jewish relationships in America. The writing here might be strong, but the story doesn’t impress me as much as others I have read, including The History of Love by Nicole Krauss and Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum. Though those two books are written for the adult audience and this story was written for young adults, I still think that it is, on the whole, not very strong. When I finished the story, I felt like Blundell depended upon her ability as a science fiction-fantasy writer to make things happen, even though she was writing a piece of historical fiction.
For anyone interested in historical fiction or young adult reading, it’s worth the read for the beautiful landscape the author creates. The historical aspects are weak, as is the story, but the writing will help make the book sail by quickly. I’m quite surprised this book won the National Book Award; I’ve read a couple of the other selections and am working on the other, and I do not feel this one compares. Such is the imprecise science of awarding one book the honor: it’s left entirely to a room of judges on the basis of emotion at any moment (that’s not to discredit the work, of course).
