What I Saw and How I Lied definitely earned its place as a National Book Award winner. The plot or more so the way in which Blundell carried the reader through out the story, I consider a great ride. The topics, even though adult-like, matched the reality of our teenagers today. The novel presents passion and energy that was evident in every turn of the page. I believe that the book had fantastic historical accuracy. I am not widely capable of stating facts about the 1940's, but the elements were there in the book, such as the social use of cigarettes, the cocktails, and the details about the layers of dress, style of dressing that Evie explained, and the dresses, lipstick, hair imagery that the reader was able to piece together. The personal behavior was descriptive which made me believe that the story is historically accurate. Blundell also plays to the warped feminism in this book. It parallels to the 1940's perspective on women, the ownership of their bodies, and their sense of self. This did disturb me on a personal level, but again I can appreciate the novels and characters historical aspect and perspective.
Also, Blundell played to the readers’ sense of loyalty for their family and gave us mystery, sexual relations, desperation, and anger which all are tangible emotions that connected the reader to the characters. We were able to feel for these characters and care about them. As per requirements, What I Saw and How I Lied, offered the reader an in-depth exploration of the time period, the psyche of the chosen characters and the unique quality and sincerity of both the characters and the overall story. The language, I believe, carried the correct level of difficulty, respecting and stretching the readership of the readers. I love that there is this universal question of the degree of lies and what is a good lie and a bad one.
This was a great read!
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I completely agree with your blog entry about What I Saw and How I lied. The accuracy to the time period, and the detail in the plot were amazing to me. I thought your point about the exploration of the characters psyche, was very insightful. I had not thought to consider this in my post. However, you are right. She develops the characters will, and we really delve into their emotions and get caught up with them, especially Evie. I also loved your point about playing off readers’ own attachment to family. Blundell totally does this, and if she can get us that attached to characters and so emotionally involved, she deserves this award. Great Post!
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