This book was expectedly hilarious and well written. The nonlinear storytelling was fun and engaging and kept me wondering what was going on just enough to stay engaged.

I will warn that it requires a small amount of knowledge of German at certain points to know exactly what's going on but its not essential to enjoy the book. ( )

A rather confusing tale- short passages of mysterious spy stuff interspersed with the career of 'hero' Adrian Healey, as he makes his way (intelligent, witty and full of youithful lust for his fellow schoolboys) through boarding school and on to uni. But how much of the colourful account is even true?
Generally well-written and entertaining; the spy stuff (and the cricket scene) seemed to go on forever, but it did have a clever ending... ( )

I am a big fan of Fry, the man is almost a nation institution now. I had read his biography last year, and though that it was great.

However, this book, I just could not get on with. I couldn't get the characters, the plot was not twisted, it was muddled, and it took 200 pages or so for me to begin to enjoy it.

I think that it was supposed to full of erudite wit and humour, but it just washed over me. ( )

A light parlour-game of a book: inconsequential and the extent to which you will enjoy it depends on your tolerance for that kind of thing. For my part, a large chunk of the book revolves around things which I have no interest in – public school, cricket and homosexuality – even if it is redeemed to some extent by two things I am interested in – brevity and wordplay. Fry can write, but the book is a strange one, with weird, meandering plots and characters who don't transcend their function. And a lot of it is misdirection (hence the 'Liar' of the title), meaning the reader's endeavour is often pointless. The whole thing makes sense at the end, but the end is a long time to wait when you don't like what's going on, or even know what is going on. ( )

Very strange storyline. Enjoyed parts of it, but the last third seemed really disconnected from the rest of the book.


Oh, and for some reason I really wanted to see Hugo&Adrien together. ( )