Pg. 69: Rachel Cline's "My Liar"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: My Liar by Rachel Cline.

About the book, from the publisher:

Rachel Cline’s debut novel, What to Keep, was praised as “striking ... lovely” (Entertainment Weekly), “tangibly real” (Los Angeles Times), and “eminently readable” (Salon). Set in 1990s Hollywood, My Liar portrays the complex connection between two talented women, each striving to realize her own vision of success in work and in love.

Annabeth Jensen, thirty-three, is a film editor. A native Minnesotan, she is most comfortable playing nice and working behind the scenes, even after ten years in Los Angeles. Then she crosses paths with up-and-coming director Laura Katz. Self-confident, assertive, and alluring, Laura seems to be the perfect mentor and the ideal best friend – especially after she hires Annabeth to edit her new film, Trouble Doll.

Yet as Annabeth cuts and recuts the film that both women hope will assure their futures, she finds herself wanting creative control almost as badly as she craves Laura’s approval. Meanwhile, Laura, who trusts almost no one (certainly not her slippery producer, her brittle screenwriter, or her wayward husband), finds herself increasingly reliant on Annabeth. And when Trouble Doll emerges from their collaboration, uncomfortable truths about both women’s lives are forced into the light.

Rachel Cline illuminates the world of moviemaking with keen insight and wry wit. But My Liar looks far beyond the HOLLYWOOD sign. Its real subject is self-deception–in friendship, art, and life–and the enmeshed nature of communication and competition between women.

Among the early praise for the novel:

“A seductive charmer of a novel–funny, knowing, poignant, inclusively hip and gratifylingly adult at the same time. It is impossible not to be drawn in immediately by the various dramas at the book's center, including the main character's adolescent crush of a friendship with the glamorous and tough-as-nails director she works for. This is one of the most enjoyable novels I've read in an age.”
--Daphne Merkin, author of Enchantment

“Looking with an outsider's fresh eye on that elusive place where Hollywood and Los Angeles–dreams and reality–intersect, Rachel Cline gives us an entirely new story of female friendships and careers in the movie business. This books shines as an architectural, literary, and cinematic discovery.”
--Carolyn See, author of There Will Never Be Another You

“A rueful tale of complicated people in a complicated city. Cline's characters are wonderfully real, and through them she makes a case for kindness, self-forgiveness, and artistic integrity. That would be impressive enough, but the book contains a secret treat: its gorgeous and precise descriptions of Los Angeles make the city itself seem like a living being. A terrific read. I finished it in one day, and I had other things to do.”
--Martha Moody, author of Best Friends and The Office of Desire

“Funny and tragic, satiric and deeply sympathetic, often in the same breath. With assured and compelling insight into the world of filmmaking–and into the fickleness of the human heart–Cline has written a beautifully balanced work, at once deftly entertaining and deeply felt..”
--Katharine Noel, author of Halfway House

Read an excerpt from My Liar and learn more the author and her work at Rachel Cline's website.

Brooklyn native Rachel Cline lived in Los Angeles from 1990 to 1999. During that time she wrote screenplays and teleplays, designed interactive media, and taught screenwriting at USC. Her first novel, What to Keep, was published in 2004.

The Page 69 Test: My Liar.

--Marshal Zeringue