The strange necessity of lies

On the Long list for the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction, The Blue Book is about lies, language, literature and love. In it, Scottish author A.L. Kennedy demonstrates how, like the finest works of fiction, some lies can save us.

The Blue Book is full of magic and magicians. These magicians understand, as writers do, that “any word can work a spell if you know how to use it.”

Its protagonist, Elizabeth Caroline Barker, is a magician’s daughter familiar with sleights of hand. Elizabeth is on the run from her past, when she worked — together with a partner — as a psychic.

Now she finds herself on a luxury cruise ship with boyfriend Derek, who shows worrisome signs that he may be about to propose to her. Derek is a reliable man. “He doesn’t do appalling things.” In this way, he stands in sharp contrast to Arthur Lockwood, who also turns up aboard the ship. Elizabeth’s former lover, Arthur is the other half of the double act she wants so desperately to put behind her.

There are many clever, wry observations here about cruise ship life. It is, Elizabeth reflects, “an environment prepared for people who are quite terribly afraid of being left to their own devices.”

The cruise ship offers its own brand of deception. Elizabeth notes how couples pose for photographs before the backdrop of a setting sun, “the actual setting sun having disappeared much earlier in more al fresco and unpredictable surroundings.”

Kennedy seems to be telling us that people want lies, sometimes requiring them to survive.

The Blue Book By A.L. Kennedy House of Anansi Press 384 pages; $22.95