Asymmetry

A Novel

By: Lisa Halliday

Narrated by: Candace Thaxton, Arthur Morey, Fiona Hardingham, Aden Hakimi

A Time and New York Times Top 10 Book of the Year * New York Times Notable Book and Times Critic’s Top Book of 2018

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2018 BY * Elle * Bustle * Kirkus Reviews * Lit Hub * NPR * Oprah Daily

The bestselling and critically acclaimed debut novel by Lisa Halliday is “a brilliant and complex examination of power dynamics in love and war” (The Wall Street Journal).

Told in two distinct and uniquely compelling sections, Asymmetry explores the imbalances that spark and sustain many of our most dramatic human relations: inequities in age, power, talent, wealth, fame, geography, and justice. The first section, “Folly,” tells the story of Alice, a young American editor, and her relationship with the famous and much older writer Ezra Blazer. A tender and exquisite account of an unexpected romance that takes place in New York during the early years of the Iraq War, “Folly” also explores Alice’s artistic aspirations and growing frustrations of living in Ezra’s shadow.

By contrast, “Madness” is narrated by Amar, an Iraqi-American man who, on his way to visit his brother in Kurdistan, is detained by immigration officers and spends the last weekend of 2008 in a holding room in Heathrow. These two seemingly disparate stories gain resonance as their perspectives interact and overlap, with yet new implications for their relationship revealed in an unexpected coda.

A stunning debut from a rising literary star, Asymmetry is “a transgressive roman a clef, a novel of ideas, and a politically engaged work of metafiction” (The New York Times Book Review), and a “literary phenomenon” (The New Yorker). Lisa Halliday’s novel will captivate any reader with while also posing arresting questions about the very nature of fiction itself.

great book

This is a wonderful book told by three different people. Each section is a story on to itself though there seems to be a link between the 3. I especially liked the middle section which is about a young man stuck in the London Airport because of his origins. The narrator has a beautifully modulated voice and his story is heart wrenching without being maudlin.

The first and third sections are also quite good though I found those two stories (which are more closely linked than the 2nd) of less interest. The first is about a young woman's affair with a well known writer who is much older than she is. Some of the descriptive passages are quite beautiful and it is not hard, on some level, to sympathize with the protagonist's sense of futility
and loneliness but it doesn't have the same relevance as the 2nd section.

Leaving a Doll's House, again

This novel was powerful, quiet, and more than the sum of its parts. I enjoyed it more knowing some of the biographical background for the first section. As another reviewer noted, the first part can be hard to follow because of the insertion of other texts and perspectives (and maybe the narrator could have offset these sections better), but you'll figure it out all right. It took me a couple of hours to get into this novel, but it was worth it.

Confusing

Maybe I did not pay enough attention to the audiobook when I listened to it, but I was left feeling confused.

Wow. Took me a bit to get into it, but glad I kept listening

I love the way this author weaves her deeper thoughts into the everyday stories of her characters. The first story took me a while to get into. I was frustrated that Mary Alice didn’t seem to have a voice. I’m happy I kept going. Very meaningful and thoughtful work. Thank you Lisa Halliday!

Worth your time

Perfect title. The more I think about this story, the more I appreciate it. Basically, it is a catalyst for comparing how shallow, in some ways, Americans can be when compared with those who deal with wars and corruption...the kind we support.