Parallel Lies

by Stella Duffy

They say the truth matters. Not in Hollywood, it doesn't. In Hollywood you need to lie because Hollywood doesn't need lesbians. That's the deal, and Yana Ivanova is Hollywood's biggest star. So Yana Ivanova has a boyfriend called Jimmy. And a personal assistant called Penny. But hey, they live in a very glamorous closet.

But then letters start to arrive. From a writer who knows the truth. Yana fears blackmail, but she is terrified of bad publicity. And she clearly has a lot to lose.

And soon there's an accident—or maybe it's murder. Not that it matters—this is Hollywood. And more than anything else, the show must go on. All anyone expects—from other people, and even from themselves—is what Hollywood needs: Parallel Lies.

Genres: Lesbian, Fiction, Crime

256 pages, Hardcover

First published February 3, 2005

About the author

Stella Duffy was born in London and grew up in New Zealand. She has lived and worked in London since the mid-1980s. She has written seventeen novels, over seventy short stories, and devised and/or written fourteen plays. The Room of Lost Things and State of Happiness were both longlisted for the Orange Prize, and she has twice won Stonewall Writer of the Year. She has twice won the CWA Short Story Dagger. Stella is the co-founder of the Fun Palaces campaign for cultural democracy. Her latest novel is Lullaby Beach (Virago).
She is also a yoga teacher, teaching workshops in yoga for writing, and a trainee Existential Psychotherapist, her ongoing doctoral research is in the embodied experience of being postmenopausal.

Reviews

[luscious · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Personally, I’d always rather bend than break, serve than be served. Those who dislike giving service don’t understand how much power there is in being the one who knows what happens next.” (p.23)

“Sometimes choices can seem really small in the moment. And yet they change everything.” (p.77)

“I have always found it is easier to end than to begin. There are, of course, consequences, karmic results, from endings. But they seem somehow more contained than those at the beginning of things.” (p.243)

“… I don’t believe that time does heal, merely that we get used to our suffering.
[…]
That’s the thing about stories though, isn’t it? You have to understand who’s doing the telling.” (p.250)

[Lynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

In retrospect I loved the title and liked the twists and turns in the story but I also disliked all the people - as perhaps one was meant to do - and that means it wasn't such a good read for me. I read it on Kindle which means that there are no clues as to what to expect. I am interested in Stella Duffy - she's a writer i'd like to explore furhter.

[Marleen]

I did not finish this book since I couldn't get into it at all and dreaded having to read on.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

GLORIOUS COMPROMISE
I’ve been meaning to read Stella Duffy for years and enjoyed the biting satire and sharp wit. Some people have described it as a beach read but I didn’t think it was a relaxing book. The twists and turns meant I needed to concentrate even though they were implausible. Good on gender and LGBT issues but obviously of it’s time. The virago library book I read was 20 years old and hadn’t been taken out for ten years which says a lot. I would like to read more by this author. 3.5 stars

[Yvonne · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s a good beach read but that’s about it. I really wanted to like this as I wanted something simple and entertaining to read. However, it feels like it should have been three books. Some of the plot and storylines were rushed, whereas others were rehashed over and over again. Still, I would recommend it as a summer read.

[Andra · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was... weird. I didn't like it, nor did I dislike it.
The characters are well written, the plot is easy to follow and I did not predict what would happen in the end. Both Yana and Penny and cunning, sly and determined to do what's best for them, but they lack a bit of a fun, light side.

[Simon Bate · Rating 2 out of 5]

This tale of Hollywood, of Yana the movie star, Penny her PA and Jimmy the pretend boyfriend starts well and descends into farce in the last fifty pages...ho hum.

[Eunice GM · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the plot twist!

[mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some years ago, I'd picked up a Stella Duffy at Waterstone's on a whim and quite enjoyed it -- neat little mystery, attractive heroine, all wrapped up with a bow on top. But somewhere along the way I'd gone off Duffy -- I think it may have been after picking up "Beneath the Blonde," which I never finished. The covers and subject matter were getting more grim, all knives and overturned lamps and dark colours.

Then comes Parallel Lies -- the cover screams "beach read" and for me, beach reads are for all year, the better to ease the hunger for the seaside candyfloss that's just months away.

Oh, the book, you ask? Brilliant. Back to a nice tight mystery with multiple heroines this time, and one's kept guessing to the very last chapter. Back on form, Duffy is.

I identified strongly with both heroines, Yana and Penny, the former being a famous actress par excellence, the latter being her PA and secret lover. I'll introduce them with this passage, the first speaker being Penny:

'Wear the white one.' ...

'Which white one?'

Yana's accent is sharp this mid-morning. Sharply undefined. It is what she really sounds like. A smattering of nowhere-in-particular UK, smudged Californian drawl, a twisted vowel or three from her mother tongue.

'Agnes B.'

'Not a bigger label?'

'For a T-shirt? You'd be better off in Marks and Spencer's.'

This bit identified me strongly with Yana -- her core accent is, in fact, uncategorisable, shifting word by word, sentence by sentence. In many ways this reminds me of myself. And don't start me on Agnes B, and for heaven's sake take my credit card away.

Now for Penny's thoughts on the lost art of letter-writing:

I love letters. I think they are so much better than email. Email for me is for work purposes only. For keeping in touch with my friends at home I write letters. Real ones. On real paper, with pen and ink. I think it pisses my mother off actually. She'd much rather I emailed her every day, phoned twice a week. I phone once a week and write once a month. Posting the LA version of the long newsy letter I'd love to get back from her. It never comes, but I figure if I don't send what I want in the first place, I have no right to ask for it in return.

I don't write proper letters as often as I should, either. Guilty. I do wish I got more of them... but as Penny says, post not, want not.

Finally, Penny's view of relationships.

Most days Penny just gets on with it and knows that everyone, in any relationship, not just the famous, not just the hidden, but everyone, makes compromises and bends and suffers silently and complains loudly and just gets on with it. That people do what they can for a happy life, because they would rather be with someone than not, because being with someone means giving up some of yourself, because that is what a relationship is. Most days Penny doesn't really mind. And then, some days, she feels like a whore.

The "whore" bit is rather strong and is justified by the context in the book -- but even ripped from its context, this stands on its own. There's not a person round in a relationship who doesn't feel whored-out from time to time, who doesn't feel that bits of oneself have had to be left on the pavement, there for the taking by the ants, the rats, the pigeons.

Summing up -- it's been a long time since I saw myself in a book that simultaneously provided escape, a beach-read, not some sort of "make yourself better" crap. Aside from a slow chapter or two, I loved it.

[Liralen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not quite sure how to describe this book -- noir, perhaps, as it's neither mystery* nor romance nor general non-genred fiction (any of which I had expected) and has that sort of old-school sit-back-and-I'll-tell-you-what-happened-in-a-gravelly-voice tone.

There's a distance to the narration and characters that, ultimately, didn't work for me. Penny doles out information piece by piece, sometimes withholding critical details, leaving Yana's secrets (not to mention her own) to be uncovered only after the action has played out. I suppose some distance is necessary, especially when the characters have such secrets, but I came away with very little interest or investment in anyone involved. Most of the story is told via Penny's remarks upon it rather than via fleshed-out scenes, and while in many ways that choice contributes to the atmosphere, it ultimately pulled me too far out of the story and away from the characters.

I respect the author for breaking with convention and also wonder whether this might improve upon a second read, with a bit more knowledge of what's forthcoming, but as it is this just wasn't for me.

*Not exactly a mystery, anyhow.

I received a free copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway.

[Elaine Burnes · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is just plain creepy. Not a single character with any redeeming qualities. Makes you want to shower after reading. If this is what Hollywood is really like (and I suppose it is), I'm even more disgusted by our celebrity-worshiping society. And I've always been very disgusted. On the writing side, Duffy is a well-known, much published and awarded writer, so the quality is there (this is another Bywater and kudos to them in getting the U.S. rights to this which was originally published by Virago, Sarah Waters's publisher). The style is daring. She breaks rules by "telling" most of the story. The first bit of dialogue doesn't appear until Chapter 5, page 28. The POV switches between first-person and omniscient third. It takes some getting used to. It's ultimately a dark, noirish mystery. I knew more was going on than she was leading me to believe, but was still surprised, though not. These are nasty people.

[V.T. Davy]

Chic-to-chic lit. I have nothing positive to say about this novel. Duffy barely conceals her dislike of the characters she has created and, consequently, I could not care less what happened to any of them. There were massive motivational inconsistencies, the plot was predictable and the characters stereotypical. It had nothing new to say about the well-worn cliché that Hollywood is filled with unscrupulous worshippers of the god Mammon. Even the sex was bad, reduced to one-liners containing an f-word.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Crikey, two stars seems very harsh, doesn't it, but I'm trying to be led by the associated descriptions rather than the numerical rankings themselves, and two stars equal "it was ok". Which it was. I just found myself not very engaged with it at all, though, sadly.

While I don't fully agree with the reviewer who says none of the characters is likable, certainly they're not particularly pleasant. But it may just be that they don't feel all that fleshed out.

There's not a huge amount more I can write without giving away plot points, so I won't.

Ah well.

[Aaliyah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this to be both a page turner but incredibly jarring, the characters were all so hard to read and some of the writing definitely took a dip in quality as the book went on. Nonetheless, the plot was fairly interesting and unfolded over a pleasantly fair amount of time but some of the twists were so beyond ridiculous. It wasn't hard to read, I got through it quickly but it was grating at times.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book quite quickly - always a good sign. But there was something about it that grated with me. Maybe it was simply that the whole book is about deceit.

[Mirrordance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Non riesco a decidermi. Non mi e' rimasto indifferente ma allo stesso tempo non mi ha preso fino in fondo. Scorre ma sembra mancare di qualcosa...