I made the mistake of
starting Tell Me No Lies at roughly 1:30 AM. When I looked up an hour
had gone by. I knew I had to get some sleep but I was loathe to stop reading
even for as much as a night.
Even when I devour a
book at a rapid pace, it still takes me anywhere from ten days to two weeks to
get through a book. I think I finished Tell Me No Lies in five days,
give or take. This did not so much have to do with the plot or the prose
(though both are superb) but because I kept turning pages because I kept hoping
that I could find some way to comprehend the character of Nora Linden, the character
who is the center of the story and who puts everything in motion. I was unsatisfied
in that regard when the novel ended, perhaps because I’ve never encountered a
character truly like Nora in all my years of reading fiction. I’ve run into a
few version of her in TV and the movies but we never understood why they did
what they did. Maybe in Nora’s case it’s because she doesn’t understand
herself.
The plot involves the
story of the Linden sisters, Nora and Sophie. The story is split between Nora
and Sophie’s retelling of events: Nora is giving a ‘confession’ of what
happened to her in the past; Sophie is dealing with them in the present. The sisters
were close growing up, but then Nora committed an action that led to their
parents divorcing and Sophie has never forgiven her. Both of them are
separately trying to find their ways out of the small town they live in: Nora
is determined to use her mind to get her to Brown; Sophie is determined to get
out because of her dancing, mainly through a summer intensive. Sophie’s
boyfriend Garrett disappeared one night with Nora. The night that happened,
Sophie lied to protect her sister. Garrett has been missing ever since and
Sophie is convinced Nora knows what happened. She’s right.
That’s enough of the
plot. Nora Linden is unlike any teenage character I’ve read about in YA fiction
or indeed any fiction. There is something clearly missing from her that all of
us don’t even think about twice. Sophie says at one point that people are
fascinated by her superpower: Nora doesn’t need anyone. She’s closest to
getting her sister than anyone, but she misses the point: Nora doesn’t want
anyone or anything.
Nora is clearly a great
student with high academic achievements. But its clear from the beginning that’s
the only thing she’s good it. She can not comprehend social norms. She doesn’t
go to party, doesn’t understand the draw of sporting events, can’t comprehend
why human connections are important. She has friends but they are only on her
terms. Adam, who is practically her brother, clearly loves her but she doesn’t
think its worth the effort to love him because she thinks love is a waster. She
loves Sophie but her love takes the form of protecting her rather than telling
her so. Nora can not comprehend other people and does not think she needs to
make the effort.
Some might want to say
Nora’s on the spectrum. That’s not even close. Nora has a code of behavior
which she lives by and can not comprehend why anyone else wouldn’t. Everything
is set into motion because Nora and Garrett have been accused of cheating. Nora
refuses to accept the punishment and is puzzled when Garrett does not raise an
objection. She sees he is nervous and is determined to learn every one of
Garrett’s secrets. Nora has a judgment of a moral code that everyone else
should follow but feels no scruples in violating it when it pleases her. She is
considers trustworthy by the principal, but the minute she is left alone in his
office she chooses to hack into his computer. According to her, it was foolish
of him. Nora has broken the bond between her and Sophie because she thinks the
world should have her and not him. As she becomes aware that Garrett – and many
other students – are engaged in a complex cheating ring, she is infuriated not
so much because they are cheating but because they make her hard work look bad.
At one point she is told by Garrett that Sophie is part of this cheating ring
and she refuses to believe because Sophie would never cheat. Fifty pages
earlier, Sophie has learned of this ring and her first reaction is why no one
told her about it.
Nora spends the entire
novel degrading all of the villainous men and women she meets in it for being
unthinking and selfish. She seems entirely unaware that she is exactly like
them. Late in the novel we learn that the Linden’s divorce occurred as a result
of her father’s infidelity. Nora learned about it, and its never clear as to whether
her mother knew about and let nothing happen. Nora seems bothered by it because
her father was spending money on gifts to his mistress and more importantly,
draining Nora’s college fund. She sets a plan in motion where she calls her
parents and tells them that Sophie is missing just so she can expose her father’s
lies to her mother. It’s clear even the infidelity and the lies didn’t matter
as much as the fact that her father got in the way of ‘the Plan’.
She genuinely doesn’t
seem to comprehend why Sophie blames her so much for breaking up their family.
At one point she argues whether the ends justify the means, which is ironic
because Nora doesn’t even have her own ends. At one point she actually tells us
that she doesn’t believe in finish lines. Her plan seems determined on getting
into Brown. She doesn’t seem to have any goals aside from that, besides a vague
desire to get rich. At one point the most emotion she reveals is that she doesn’t
seem to understand who she is without her plan.
Sophie is damaged much
the same way Nora is but I think at the end of the day she is far healthier
emotionally then her sister. She has friends she is close to; she is capable of
love and eventually she begins to follow the path to figure out the truth
behind what Garrett and Nora were up to. Her bigger problem is the enormous inferiority
complex that her family has burdened her with. She has a clear memory of
showing her parents her report card in second grade and hearing her father say:
“Well, at least she can dance.” She has clung to Nora in a way since then but
she can’t comprehend why her sister can’t at least pretend to say something
comforting or warm. In a sense everything Sophie does in the novel is because of
the path that Nora has laid down for her, which Nora thinks is a way to show
how much she loves her sister, by proving that she is stronger and smarter than
she thinks.
In a way that’s
comforting. The problem is Nora genuinely seems to think that atones for
everything she has done as a result. Nora’s actions are clearly guided by some
moral certainty – at one point a friend of hers actually says: “Failure is not
an option for Nora Linden.” Nora no doubts takes it without irony. The problem
is Nora’s actions throughout the story are so locked on course that a certain
point you realize that the best explanation for her behavior is that she is a
sociopath. Near the end of the novel (I won’t reveal under what conditions
exactly) someone tells her that she has done everything she does to prove “how
fucking superior you are…how you’re so goddamn noble and the rest of us are
liars and cheaters?” This causes Nora to collapse emotionally for the first
time in the novel because she knows he isn’t wrong.
Nora frames her narrative
as a ‘confession’ but it is only in the legal sense of the word. She is not penitent
nor does she feel truly unhappy about the manipulations she has done and the lives
she has laid waste to. As a result of her actions to this point three people
have died, one by accident and two more or less by her hand. (Again the reader
should learn who they are by herself.) The most she says in the final statement
is: “I’m not proud of those things. I don’t regret them either.” And even when
she finally reveals the truth about her actions, her regrets are solely limited
to Sophie. There is not even a trace of sympathy for her mother in regards to
the horror show she has put her through over the last several months. Her final
actions show that she thinks that only her sister deserves to know the truth.
If she considers her mother at all, she only does so by deciding to leave that
burden on her – and given everything she’s already put her sister through, I
find that cruel in itself.
I have not truly
revealed most of the plot in Tell Me No Lies. I don’t think I will. Much
of the story is truly thrilling in the parallel investigations that both Nora
and Sophie end up taking, particularly because Nora while clearly a genius has
no understanding of human impulses or behavior and as a result she barely avoids
death several times in the novel. Her desires to keep her secrets or trust
anyone repeatedly lead her into deeper danger and an innocent woman dies as a
result of it. Sophie is not nearly as smart as her sister, but because of her
ability to get a clear read on people – and ironically because she is too
emotional – she has a far better acuity when it comes to the people she can’t
trust. Nora is also clearly unable to read the people she considers dangerous
and keeps making the same mistakes. Because Sophie is more capable of emotional
connections, she has someone she can trust when she realizes the truth and
comes up with a plan.
At the end of the day,
even had none of the events that transpired in Tell Me No Lies taken
place, Sophie would have been far more likely to have a happier and healthier
future than Nora ever could. Whether or not Sophie became a successful dancer,
I think she had far more emotional capabilities than Nora ever did, and is far
more willing to love and trust people that Nora ever could. The final page of
the novel reveals that Sophie has come to emotionally grow and change at a
level we ever saw Nora of in the entire novel.
As for Nora’s future, I
don’t think even if she’d made into Brown she would have been a success. She
has no understanding of people, no ability to handle social functions, no true
understanding of what it means to love someone in a way that really matters. Everything
that happens in the novel tells me that despite all of the consequences the
biggest sign of growth she’s managed to do is to ‘let go of high school and
college for a while.” The thing is, even after everything that has happened her
actions demonstrate that she is locked into the idea that the ends still do
justify the means. I can only think of two characters in fiction that have that
kind of thinking – and neither of them are comforting role models for Nora.
One is Jack Bauer. The other
is Dexter Morgan. The reader can decide at the end which is more likely for
Nora but viewers of either show know
neither had a happy ending.
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