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Parallel Lies, Stella Duffy
Virago
Reviewed by James O'Sullivan (Courtesy of the Taranaki Daily News)
Some people lead complicated lives. Take these Hollywood types for example. They must manufacture a public persona that sells to the celebrity-obsessed masses. And if their actual lives don't quite match the persona, they hire a publicist to make stuff up.
Stella Duffy takes this idea to its murderous conclusion in Parallel Lies. Yana is a Russian-born Hollywood starlet. She is in love with her personal assistant, Penny, the English narrator. Because homosexuality is a career killer in Hollywood, Yana's publicist hires a sit-com star called Jimmy to pose as her husband.
Inevitably this web of lies begins to unravel. Someone is writing letters claiming to know what's going on behind the public facade. Jimmy wants out of the deal. And is Yana all that she says she is? And, for that matter, is Penny a reliable narrator? Is she telling the whole truth?
Duffy writes in clear, uncluttered prose but does at times get bogged down with superfluous details that don't do much for the book. The flow of the story is too often interrupted with unessential biographical details and Hollywood insights.
The difficulty with Parallel Lies is its major plot twists and turns. As the fictional facade becomes threatened, Yana and Penny must take drastic action. But the action taken is a little too drastic.
Duffy didn't fully satisfy me of her characters' motivations for such a dire deed. I simply didn't buy it. The truth behind Yana's origins also stretches the fabric of credibility. I just cannot imagine a real-life Hollywood starlet having that sort of background.
The final twist looks more like a cop-out than a satisfying conclusion to a mystery. Duffy plays with the unreliable narrator concept, something that is in step with her theme of lies and deception. But this can be taken too far. Consequently, the ending has an unsatisfying "it was all just a dream" feel to it rather than a logical, fulfilling finale.