
RAH Humor Review: The Liar
by Dave Bealer

Stephen Fry is best known as a comic actor.  He appeared as Melchitt
in the various "Blackadder" series and is half of the popular English
comedy team of Fry and Laurie.  As of 1991 Stephen Fry is also a
published novelist.  _The Liar_ was a #1 bestseller in England, but
hasn't done as well in North America, which is a bit of a shame.

One of the reasons for the book's failure over here is it's fairly
bawdy nature.  Even worse, most of the sex is homosexual in nature.
Much of England is still mired in the Victorian era as far as sex
is concerned.  Of course that puts them light-years ahead of the
United States, which is still saddled with the Puritans.

_The Liar_ follows the public school (an English euphemism for their
most exclusive private schools) and college career of Adrian Healey,
an upper middle class English youth who happens to be a pathological
liar.  Anyone who goes into this expecting a Jon Lovitz-like
treatment of the character type will be bitterly disappointed and
more than a little confused.  This is a thoroughly English novel,
full of English idioms.  Fry's use of language is reminiscent of
Oscar Wilde, and demonstrates yet again that a good English writer
will always sound "better," or at least more sophisticated, than a
writer of any other nationality who happens to be writing in English.

For those anglophiles who can handle it, this novel provides a biting
satirical look at several levels of English society as they existed
20 years ago.  From the meat markets of Piccadilly to Lord's Cricket
Ground, Adrian Healey gets around...or at least he claims to.

_The Liar_ by Stephen Fry.  ISBN: 0-939149-82-6
Published by Soho Press, 853 Broadway, New York, NY. 10003      {RAH}

