3 stars

I received this book from Goodreads in exchange for an honest review.This book was a bit difficult for me to really get into. Tuck builds the novel around fact and fiction, toying with the idea of autobiographical texts and demonstrating the deconstruction that occurs in all text, “it is impossible to tell what is fact and what is fiction… it is impossible to know whether configuration produces reference in a text or whether reference produces the figure” (231-232).So on an intellectually level, the book is fascinating. It gets the reader thinking. Is this part autobiographical? Is this part fiction? In the text, Lilane herself constantly questions those telling her stories, “Is that true?”However, the jumping from one character, time, story, and event to another makes the book as a whole a little difficult to read. The book is less about the character, Liliane, and more about the people, places, and times connected to her throughout her life through varying degrees of relatedness. The writing was well done, but the lack of a cohesive story made it difficult to engage with. A very smart book, one that takes real effort to fully understand.