I’m really not all that much into audiobooks these days, but I do still enjoy them anytime I’m driving alone for more than just a few minutes at a time. The extra focus that audiobooks demand keeps me more aware and alert than I otherwise would be by just listening to music while I drive. So I put Mitch Albom’s The Little Liar to good use last month. I chose an Albom book mainly because he is one of those writers whose stories are sraightforward enough that they don’t require a focus level that might be dangerous at 75 miles per hour. That he does such a wonderful job narrating The Little Liar himself was a bonus I didn’t expect.
Mitch Albom books tend to be a little gimmicky, and this one is no exception. This is a story about an eleven-year-old boy in Salonika, Greece, who has never in his life told a lie. We know this to be true because the book’s narrator is none other than Truth itself, and Truth tells us that young Nico Krispis is simply incapable of telling a lie. We, as readers, believe it - and so does everyone in Nico’s Salonika community.
But Nico’s determination never to lie backfires on him when the Nazis invade Greece and a devious German officer exploits Nico’s reputation for unfailing honesty to trick the boy’s fellow Jews into calmly boarding the trains that are to take them to faraway concentration camps. Nico believes that the families are being relocated to new towns and jobs where they can safely ride out the war, and that’s what they believe when he tells them it’s true. He’s believes what he’s been told by the German he’s befriended, and that’s what he tells everyone at the train station. It’s only when Salonika has largely been cleared of its Jewish population that Nico figures out the truth. And when he does, he is so horrified that he never tells the truth again.
There are four main characters in The Little Liar: Nico; his older brother Sebastian; Fannie, the little girl both boys are in love with; and the German officer. The four characters go their separate ways after leaving Salonika for the camps, but they are far from done with each other. Albom tells their stories in rotating segments focused on each's post-war life until the moment forty years later that they finally meet again for their final confrontation.
The Little Liar is a story about lies, devastating guilt, reluctant forgiveness, self-forgiveness, and hard-earned redemption. It reads like a deceptively simple parable requiring a fairly strong suspension of disbelief at times, but it still manages to pack a surprising punch.
What a gut punch for Nico when what he thinks is the truth turns out to be such a horrible lie. How would you ever recover from that? I don't listen to a lot of audio books either...mostly because they tend to put me to sleep. It's fun that Albom himself does the narrating.
ReplyDeleteIt was the kind of gut punch that you never get over, Lark. Albom is a really good narrator, even doing all the required accents and using the cadence of child speakers as opposed to adult speakers, etc. Very impressive job on his part.
DeleteSeems like Nico needs to know when to tell a lie and when not to ... in order to save people. I think audios are particularly good for the car and while doing yard work ... and on dog walks. I can become pretty tuned into them.
ReplyDeleteHis grandfather convinced him that being truthful at all times was something worth striving for, and Nico bought into that one hundred percent. And in his defense, he believed that he was being truthful even when misleading his own family into boarding the trains. So when the German officer tells him that he is a “good little liar,” the boy is shattered. I found this one pretty easy to keep up with while driving.
DeleteI was surprised to learn from my brother-in-law that he was friendly with Albom back when Albom was covering the Detroit Pistons and he was working for the NBA. Albom must be very talented to have mastered multiple genres! Are you a basketball fan? It is painful for me as a Boston native but I am rooting for the Knicks in this series.
ReplyDeleteThat’s interesting; I hadn’t realized that he had an earlier career as a sportswriter. I think Albom is very clever in his plot construction. There’s always something there to tug at the heart or make you curious enough to keep reading. I said in the review that his books are usually “gimicky” but I meant that more as a compliment than a criticism.
DeleteI’m a little bit of an NBA fan, mostly a fan of college basketball. I’m rooting for the Knicks, too, but for selfish reasons. I’m a Rockets fan, and I really don’t like to see the Spurs or Mavericks have better seasons than the Rockets - ever.