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A Big Enough Lie
Awaiting a TV talk show appearance, John Townley is quaking with dread. He has published a best-selling memoir about the Iraq War, a page-turner climaxing in atrocity. In a green room beyond the soundstage, he braces himself to confront the charismatic soldier at the violent heart of it. But John has never actually seen the man before—nor served in Iraq, nor the military. Even so, and despite the deception, he knows his fabricated memoir contains stunning truths.
By turns comic, suspenseful, bitingly satirical, and emotionally potent, A Big Enough Lie pits personal mistruths against national ones of life-and-death consequence. Tracking a writer from the wilds of Florida to New York cubicles to Midwestern workshops to the mindscapes of Baghdad—and from love to heartbreak to solitary celebrity—Bennett’s novel probes our endlessly frustrated desire to grab hold of something (or somebody) true.
By turns comic, suspenseful, bitingly satirical, and emotionally potent, A Big Enough Lie pits personal mistruths against national ones of life-and-death consequence. Tracking a writer from the wilds of Florida to New York cubicles to Midwestern workshops to the mindscapes of Baghdad—and from love to heartbreak to solitary celebrity—Bennett’s novel probes our endlessly frustrated desire to grab hold of something (or somebody) true.
296 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 31, 2015
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518 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 20, 2015
I can't stop thinking about this book. It's a war story, a cultural critique, several love stories, a story about stories, a thriller/suspense story, mostly a story about identity and what we tell ourselves. Bennett's writing is absorbing and emotionally piercing. I loved this writing and want more of it.
March 20, 2019
This novel earns extra points for creativity and raising important questions about authorship and authenticity when it comes to war novels.
Want to read
October 21, 2021Recd by Adam Johnson
February 21, 2017
Loved the first half, started to get a bit lost but still liked the rest. Perplexed at the end. One of those "did I really get it?" books.
July 20, 2015
I got word of this through former colleagues, PW, and FB.
Lie turns out to be a very good book indeed; thinking about it for the last couple of days has led me to see a variety of intricacies on the level of theme that would seem very difficult to manage for a first-time novelist. To take on the great “American” myth of self-creation is challenge enough, but here there are at least four characters who rise to it aided and abetted by repeated but protean scenes, parallel but apparently unconnected narratives, and the novelist, who comfortably occupies the consciousness of those characters: Henry Fleming, John Townley, Antoine Greep, Heather Kloppenberg, and Marshall Franklin Stang.
Fleming, a direct reference to The Red Badge of Courage, has an identity solution involving his escape from imprisonment, Townley adopts Fleming’s identity as a student at the Midland Writing Program, having developed multiple selves living in NYC, Antoine Greep only wants to be recognized as himself, not as his famous father’s son, Heather Kloppenberg, also in the writing program is uncomfortable in her own body and relaxes into herself when she loves the faux Henry Fleming (Townley). The overall narrative develops from Stang and his functional replacement, Greep, two men who are themselves, regardless. The filming trick pulled by Stang in high school finds its replication in one by Greep, a clever ploy that goes wrong in a much more dire fashion.
The book offers much more, including diatribes against US attitudes and behavior by an Iraqi museum official and archeologist, Adnan Antoon, who delivers one of the more serious indictments of the efforts of the ”coalition of the willing” (pp 186-94). This kind of satirical undermining of US awareness operates on lesser subjects—Fox News/TEX News, Oprah Winfree/Winnie Wilson, The Bridges of Madison County/The Gazebos of Jackson Township, and N + 1/Greater Than X so that, while a considerable amount of intellectual energy is expended on the major elements of the story/stories, there remains plenty of time for supporting Antoon’s views and carrying forward the main theme: about Winnie Wilson, one of the N + 1 figures remarks, “. . . [W]hat does she ask?” “Who the hell are you?” . . . “Whether it’s true or not, that’s what she asks. She wants to know how autobiographical [the book] is” (p 215).
Chekov warns us that a pistol introduced in the first act must go off before the play has ended; thus it is with the video cam and its cartridge. Its resolution has a debilitating effect on the otherwise gripping movement of the text, leading the main narrative to hiccup as it comes to its denouement.
This was a much better book than Kevin Powers’s The Yellow Bird and reminded me of Billy Lynn’s Long Half-Time Walk (Ben Fountain) because of the gut-wrenching analysis of US society and its arrogance/weakness; the fixation on video tapes recalled Stephen Wright’s Meditations in Green, one of my very favorite war novels, which had a character trying to film the entire war from his perspective.
For us, mundus vult decipi ergo decipiatur indeed.
As a disclaimer, Mr Bennett was hired to replace me at my retirement; reading this has made me feel like a place-holder. Unlike Winnie, we shall not ask how much of this novel is autobiographical.
Lie turns out to be a very good book indeed; thinking about it for the last couple of days has led me to see a variety of intricacies on the level of theme that would seem very difficult to manage for a first-time novelist. To take on the great “American” myth of self-creation is challenge enough, but here there are at least four characters who rise to it aided and abetted by repeated but protean scenes, parallel but apparently unconnected narratives, and the novelist, who comfortably occupies the consciousness of those characters: Henry Fleming, John Townley, Antoine Greep, Heather Kloppenberg, and Marshall Franklin Stang.
Fleming, a direct reference to The Red Badge of Courage, has an identity solution involving his escape from imprisonment, Townley adopts Fleming’s identity as a student at the Midland Writing Program, having developed multiple selves living in NYC, Antoine Greep only wants to be recognized as himself, not as his famous father’s son, Heather Kloppenberg, also in the writing program is uncomfortable in her own body and relaxes into herself when she loves the faux Henry Fleming (Townley). The overall narrative develops from Stang and his functional replacement, Greep, two men who are themselves, regardless. The filming trick pulled by Stang in high school finds its replication in one by Greep, a clever ploy that goes wrong in a much more dire fashion.
The book offers much more, including diatribes against US attitudes and behavior by an Iraqi museum official and archeologist, Adnan Antoon, who delivers one of the more serious indictments of the efforts of the ”coalition of the willing” (pp 186-94). This kind of satirical undermining of US awareness operates on lesser subjects—Fox News/TEX News, Oprah Winfree/Winnie Wilson, The Bridges of Madison County/The Gazebos of Jackson Township, and N + 1/Greater Than X so that, while a considerable amount of intellectual energy is expended on the major elements of the story/stories, there remains plenty of time for supporting Antoon’s views and carrying forward the main theme: about Winnie Wilson, one of the N + 1 figures remarks, “. . . [W]hat does she ask?” “Who the hell are you?” . . . “Whether it’s true or not, that’s what she asks. She wants to know how autobiographical [the book] is” (p 215).
Chekov warns us that a pistol introduced in the first act must go off before the play has ended; thus it is with the video cam and its cartridge. Its resolution has a debilitating effect on the otherwise gripping movement of the text, leading the main narrative to hiccup as it comes to its denouement.
This was a much better book than Kevin Powers’s The Yellow Bird and reminded me of Billy Lynn’s Long Half-Time Walk (Ben Fountain) because of the gut-wrenching analysis of US society and its arrogance/weakness; the fixation on video tapes recalled Stephen Wright’s Meditations in Green, one of my very favorite war novels, which had a character trying to film the entire war from his perspective.
For us, mundus vult decipi ergo decipiatur indeed.
As a disclaimer, Mr Bennett was hired to replace me at my retirement; reading this has made me feel like a place-holder. Unlike Winnie, we shall not ask how much of this novel is autobiographical.
November 22, 2016
A big enough plot to overcome the shortcomings.
This book may well call to mind the controversy over James Frey’s so-called memoir A Million Tiny Pieces which, it later transpired, was a work of fiction. Eric Bennett’s tale is one of authorial fraudulence and it’s a clever piece of work - though it has its shortcomings. Can you get past a confusing opening? Can you wade through yards of exposition? Can you deal with digressions and longueurs? Do you like the conceit of a book within a book? There may be plenty to annoy you in Eric Bennett’s novel but your patience will, I think, be rewarded because the plot is just so damn good.
As the book opens, John Townley is waiting in the green room, about to make an appearance on the Winnie Wilson show (for which read Oprah). The world believes he is Henry Fleming, author of a best-selling war memoir about his time in Iraq. The only trouble is, Townley has never been a soldier. Also on the show will be Antoine Greep, the sole known survivor of the real Fleming’s platoon. As Townley walks into the studio on his fraudulent crutches, he is convinced he’s about to be unmasked.
Now for the really clever part: the core of the book alternates between the young Townley’s life leading up to his subterfuge and chapters from his fake war memoir. This is really quite brilliant in the way it is done: how Townley’s unremarkable life is reflected in Fleming's experience of leading a platoon in war-torn Iraq, how Townley’s relationship with his charismatic but wayward friend Stang is reflected in the platoon leader’s relationship with his charismatic but wayward comrade Greep.
In Townley’s eyes his ‘memoir’ is not a literary hoax because it contains essential truths: “…he believed that the words on the page were exempt from the codes of morality that would brand them as lies. He had proven something true.” That fiction can offer more insight than fact is an interesting argument and is, in effect, the essence of the book.
Unfortunately, extraneous verbiage slows down the story and superfluous characters confuse the plot. There is far too much ‘tell’ and nowhere near enough ‘show’ in Eric Bennett’s writing and some of the supporting cast seems to have little bearing on the narrative (although there is a particularly fine passage wherein an Iraqi archaeologist lambasts the American invasion and all that the West stands for). After a shaky start that almost led to the book’s abandonment, I got to grips with the author’s intentions and found myself compelled to read on. Bennett wins on points.
This book may well call to mind the controversy over James Frey’s so-called memoir A Million Tiny Pieces which, it later transpired, was a work of fiction. Eric Bennett’s tale is one of authorial fraudulence and it’s a clever piece of work - though it has its shortcomings. Can you get past a confusing opening? Can you wade through yards of exposition? Can you deal with digressions and longueurs? Do you like the conceit of a book within a book? There may be plenty to annoy you in Eric Bennett’s novel but your patience will, I think, be rewarded because the plot is just so damn good.
As the book opens, John Townley is waiting in the green room, about to make an appearance on the Winnie Wilson show (for which read Oprah). The world believes he is Henry Fleming, author of a best-selling war memoir about his time in Iraq. The only trouble is, Townley has never been a soldier. Also on the show will be Antoine Greep, the sole known survivor of the real Fleming’s platoon. As Townley walks into the studio on his fraudulent crutches, he is convinced he’s about to be unmasked.
Now for the really clever part: the core of the book alternates between the young Townley’s life leading up to his subterfuge and chapters from his fake war memoir. This is really quite brilliant in the way it is done: how Townley’s unremarkable life is reflected in Fleming's experience of leading a platoon in war-torn Iraq, how Townley’s relationship with his charismatic but wayward friend Stang is reflected in the platoon leader’s relationship with his charismatic but wayward comrade Greep.
In Townley’s eyes his ‘memoir’ is not a literary hoax because it contains essential truths: “…he believed that the words on the page were exempt from the codes of morality that would brand them as lies. He had proven something true.” That fiction can offer more insight than fact is an interesting argument and is, in effect, the essence of the book.
Unfortunately, extraneous verbiage slows down the story and superfluous characters confuse the plot. There is far too much ‘tell’ and nowhere near enough ‘show’ in Eric Bennett’s writing and some of the supporting cast seems to have little bearing on the narrative (although there is a particularly fine passage wherein an Iraqi archaeologist lambasts the American invasion and all that the West stands for). After a shaky start that almost led to the book’s abandonment, I got to grips with the author’s intentions and found myself compelled to read on. Bennett wins on points.
December 20, 2015
One of the best new novels I've read in a long time. Of course this is due to my interests, one of which is art that blends, or is about the blending of, truth and fiction. This is a novel about a writer who writes a fake memoir as a desperate attempt to have his writing get at something truly real. The book alternates chapters between the fake memoir and the "real" story of how the writer gets from being a shy sheltered kid in rural Florida to appearing on an Oprah Winfrey-like TV show with his best-selling "fraudulent" book. On the way, Bennett explores and expounds on many important themes, like the nature of modern warfare, the fraudulent and media-driven Iraq War in particular, the pretensions and hubris of creative writing MFA programs, the pain heartbreak and obsessive, unrequited love... the list goes on. In a way I think this book is our era's version of Heller's Catch-22. Satirical, funny, dark, smart and complicated but full of compelling story lines that pull you along.
I wonder what David Shields, author of "Reality Hunger," would think of this book? At first I thought it was the perfect realization of some of his ideas. But then I realized maybe not as much so, because it is in the end fiction, perhaps even wholly fiction (although I do wonder how much of John Townley is Eric Bennett). Shields would probably love it if someone really DID do what is depicted in "A Big Enough Lie," wrote and sold a memoir that's really novel. Like "A Million Little Pieces" if James Frey had intentionally written it as memoir (a lot of people don't know it was his publisher that had the idea of marketing it as non-fiction).
In the end though, a great and perfectly apt novel for our age.
I wonder what David Shields, author of "Reality Hunger," would think of this book? At first I thought it was the perfect realization of some of his ideas. But then I realized maybe not as much so, because it is in the end fiction, perhaps even wholly fiction (although I do wonder how much of John Townley is Eric Bennett). Shields would probably love it if someone really DID do what is depicted in "A Big Enough Lie," wrote and sold a memoir that's really novel. Like "A Million Little Pieces" if James Frey had intentionally written it as memoir (a lot of people don't know it was his publisher that had the idea of marketing it as non-fiction).
In the end though, a great and perfectly apt novel for our age.
August 4, 2015
A better book than Gone Girl, which also skated along the edge of truth and media. "A Big Enough Lie" moves back and forth between the different viewpoints of several characters, with particular focus on self-involved, narcissistic John/Henry. John is a loser in love and life and wills his way into a different world by pretending to be someone he isn't, Henry Fleming, a veteran. Along the way, he engages with four other characters who are playing parts: Marshall Stang, the cool friend whom John wants to emulate; Emily, a cousin on whom John is romantically fixated; Antoine Greep, a supposed war hero; and Heather Kloppenberg, an erstwhile writer who dumps Henry when she learns the truth. After an introduction of the chief quandary--how will John/Henry's story be revealed on national television?-- the initial scenes get off to a slow start with a few too many digressions, as if John the writer is still learning to write. In the middle of the book, the writing from Heather's viewpoint is so stupefying (to convince you she is an idiot) as to make one want to give up. HOWEVER, writing as the "author" Henry Fleming, Eric Bennett breathes life into prose, fleshes out characters, addresses atrocities of war, and creates a compelling pace accelerating toward an explosive conclusion that effectively explains WHY a writer would contrive an entire experience, even pretending to be a veteran, to live "larger than life." A book with many nuances and several themes that could be teased out in a classroom setting, it's a keeper.
April 22, 2023
This is a pretty great book. It's stunning in both conception and execution. The book might look at first glance like an Iraq war memoir (an impression abetted by the fake "Winnie Wilson Book Club" medallion on the cover, which is part of the book's masquerade), but it's in fact something like the inverse--the invasion of memoir by fiction and vice versa. It's about the "writing" of war and the war of writing (including some delicious workshop scenes at a Midwestern analogue to the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Bennett's also published a book about the history of creative writing programs). Thematically adventurous, structurally immaculate, tightly written.
October 5, 2015
This book challenges you as a reader in the best way possible. The varying narrative structures create intriguing portraits of the novel's main characters, and speaks about them with a depth and tenderness that a traditional approach could not replicate. A Big Enough Lie also dares to address "big ideas" about society and the nature of truth in storytelling—weirdly Dickensian.
January 18, 2016
I really enjoyed the concept of this novel / faux memoir. The two stories informed each other - the non-military, third person "fact" and the military "memoir" were both interesting. I especially liked the segment from the girlfriend's perspective, but I appreciated it all.
May 30, 2016
I like Bennett's writing, and chapter XIX is brilliant. However, the plotting is muddled and just when you think there will be an emotional payoff, he gets clever. Cleverness, in fact, seems to be the point of this book. I am looking forward to his next book, and I expect some improvement.
January 6, 2016
Beautifully written, gifted at turning a phrase. Characters are believable. Exceptional use of the language. I'm reading another book now and am missing Eric's writing skill. A few times I became lost in the plot but I recovered.
August 25, 2015
Great debut novel by Eric Bennett.
It took me some time to settle into the story, but after a quarter of the way in I couldn't put the book down. Strong character development with interesting plot twists. I'm curious about follow up work from this author.
It took me some time to settle into the story, but after a quarter of the way in I couldn't put the book down. Strong character development with interesting plot twists. I'm curious about follow up work from this author.
October 27, 2015
Unreadable. Don't care about any of the characters.
October 1, 2015
A solid addition to modern war fiction. Astute, sharp writing and observation.
November 17, 2015
Strangely, wonderfully good. Still thinking about it.
November 4, 2015
great book. good for brianiacs.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews