What I Saw and How I Lied

Posted on 25 September 2018 by Judy Blundell

When Evie s father returned home from World War II, the family fell back into its normal life pretty quickly But Joe Spooner brought back with him than just good war stories When movie star handsome Peter Coleridge, a young ex GI who served in Joe s company in postwar Austria, shows up, Evie is suddenly caught in a complicated web of lies that she only slowly recognizes She finds herself falling for Peter, ignoring the secrets that surround him until a tragedy occurs that shatters her family and breaks her life in two. Free Read What I Saw and How I Lied author Judy Blundell For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr There are good novels and then there are good novels This one is the latter.However, it s hard to pin down why it s such an amazing novel Sure, I could comment that the writing was flawless and brilliant The characters were fleshed out, detailed and intricate The setting was technicoloured, nostalgic and almost touchable.But I think what really makes this novel is the gritty, raw, awkwardness of it Evie is on the cusp of womanhood She s so close she can almost taste it and yet, she rankles There are good novels and then there are good novels This one is the latter.However, it s hard to pin down why it s such an amazing novel Sure, I could comment that the writing was flawless and brilliant The characters were fleshed out, detailed and intricate The setting was technicoloured, nostalgic and almost touchable.But I think what really makes this novel is the gritty, raw, awkwardness of it Evie is on the cusp of womanhood She s so close she can almost taste it and yet, she rankles with childishness She s naive, with a dreamy, delusional view of life and the world She sees the world and the people in it with a child s eyes and understanding that is portrayed so well by Blundell.It doesn t help that her mother is classic Effortlessly beautiful, with a rich understanding of humanity, people and how to work them It can t be easy for any teenage girl to develop a healthy self esteem about herself when she has that impossible image to live up to.On their holiday in ...I know, very few of my Goodreads friends have read or liked What I Saw And How I Lied, but I am so very grateful that such stories are even written and published these days Historical fiction is not in vogue right now, unless, of course, it involves cattiness and soapy melodrama, it seems.For one, I loved the atmosphere of this novel It gave me the same feeling of strange nostalgia for post WWII America, the way Mad Men does red lips, cigarettes, glamor and privilege, with a generous pinch I know, very few...stay tuned, there will be mary lou retton if you are patient.so first of all, i love this title i was supposed to read three books from the list for this week s teen class i ended up reading five because i am such a super nerd, but i think it is good for me, because these aren t the types of teen fiction i would ordinarily pick up if i read teen fiction it is pretty much only survival in a dystopian setting kind of stuff, certainly not first love in a complicated, postwar america i am stay tuned, there will be mary lou retton if you are patient.so first of all, i love this title i was supposed to read three books from the list for this week s teen class i ended up reading five because i am such a super nerd, but i think it is good for me, because these aren t the types of teen fiction i would ordinarily pick up if i read teen fiction it is pretty much only survival in a dystopian setting kind of stuff, certainly not first love in a complicated, postwar america i am going to review all my teen books by likening them to adult books if wither was handmaid s tale...When Alice fell down the rabbit hole, she fell slow She had time to notice things on her way down Oh, there s a teacup There s a table So things seemed almost normal to her while she was falling Then she bumped down and rolled into Wonderland, and all hell broke loose I really love it when I turn to the last page of a book, and the ending is so thoroughly perfect, but not too perfect Some questions still remain, retribution is administered, and sometimes there s cake I think, however, t When Alice...What I Saw and How I lied is not going to end up as one of those books that returns to my thoughts now and again It s perfectly forgettable.This is a coming of age book set at the end of World War 2 Evie is a teen who s step father, Joe, has just come back from the war and he s not exactly the man she remembered Joe decides that the family should have a vacation and then schleps him...I really enjoyed this coming of age novel set in the aftermath of WWII I have to admit, I picked this one purely because of the title, which I found intriguing, and I am so glad I did.Evie is awkward and gauche and, at the tender age of 15, wanting to be womanly, just like her mother who is all red lips, nail lacquer and cocktails She is ready to find love She adores her mother and Joe, her step father When they go on holiday to Florida, Evie is excited, particularly when she meets Peter C I really enjoyed this coming of age novel set in the aftermath of WWII I have to admit, I picked this one purely because of the title, which I found intriguing, and I am so glad I did.Evie is awkward and gauche and, at the tender age of 15, wanting to be womanly, just like her mother who is all red lips, nail lacquer and cocktails She is ready to find love She adores her mother and Joe, her step father When they go on holiday to Florida, Evie is excited, particularly when she meets Peter Coleridge, an ex army buddy of Joes, but one he does not seem particularly happy to see Befriended by Mrs Grayson, who takes Evie on a shopping trip to buy her some grown up clothes, she believes her life is suddenly taking the ...QUESTION How did this win the National Book Award If the first half of the book had been put into 3 or so chapters so that the reader could get to the things that happen in the story, it would have been a lot better I m so glad that I finally finished it so I can stop sighing through an award winning novel wanting so badly to move on to the other books in my to read pile I wasn t captivated by the period of this period piece I wasn t captivated by the setting The characters didn t have QUESTION How did this win the National Book Award If the first half of the book had been put into 3 or so chapters so that the reader could get to the things that happen in the story, it would have been a lot better I m so glad that I finally finished it so I can stop sighing through an...What I Heard and How I Lied is a coming of age novel set during the time period of post World War II The novel is full of nostalgic descriptions of full skirts, pumps dyed to match dresses, late afternoon cocktails, pot roast with mashed potatoes, smoking as sexy habit, and Palm Beach as an exotic location What I Heard And How I Lied also addresses in a very subtle manner issues of segregation, anti Semitism, soldiers recovery from war trauma, war time opportunism, gender roles, sexual politic What I Heard and How I Lied is a coming of age novel set during the time period of post World War II The novel is full of nostalgic descriptions of full skirts, pumps dyed to match dresses, late afternoon cocktails, pot roast with mashed potatoes, smoking as sexy habit, and Palm Beach as an exotic location What I Heard And How I Lied also addresses in a very subtle manner issues of segregation, anti Semitism, soldiers recovery from war trauma, war time opportunism, gender roles, sexual politics and dark greedy motives This book took me completely by surprise I am not sure what I was expecting, but it was definitely not a nov...This is one of those books that I am kicking myself for not reading earlier A kind friend sent the galley and I put it in stack to read but didn t get to it until the NBA announced their shortlist.I enjoyed so much about this outstanding book It was extremely atmospheric The sense of place and time was ski...I m shocked this was nominated for a National Book Award It s not a bad read, but it s certainly nothing special And the setting is one I am going to have to work very hard to get my teens interested in, and I don t think they ll come back as rewarded as they are when they read something like Tamar.

English
25 September 2018

Judy Blundell