The White Lie

September 2, 2013
Memoirist Gillies’s (Keeper) debut novel is an engaging saga about the Salter clan, loosely narrated by Michael from beyond the grave. He vanishes under mysterious circumstances as a young man at his family’s ancestral compound in Scotland. Traveling back and forth in time, Michael unravels the family’s tangled history, beginning with his idiosyncratic Aunt Ursula’s shocking confession about what happened during an altercation between her and him. Michael foreshadows the sinister tale by musing, “It’s reassuring when history doesn’t present variations; it feels as if memory is confirming itself as the facts, achieving a kind of objectivity.” Family members, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, weave their own versions of what transpired, each with shaded perceptions securely tucked away from the others. The passage of time only serves to embalm the enigma of his disappearance and underscores how much—or little—the family knows of one another. Years later, the group converges to celebrate a milestone birthday, and the reunion serves as a catalyst for dialogue about the family’s murky past. Gillies’s atmospheric prose perfectly complements this engrossing drama set against a creepy loch.

October 15, 2013
Gillies' (Keeper, 2010) fiction debut is an indulgent examination of the stories and lies that can either tie or unravel familial bonds. As told from the omniscient point of view of Michael, Otillie Salter's deceased bastard son and once heir to the estate, this formerly monied Scottish family is a sad, half-mad assemblage. They are, individually and collectively, trying to inventor reinventthemselves as a family that will fit into the twenty-first century, a century whose indifference to formerly wealthy, upper-class Scottish clans nonetheless requires sustaining the appearance of propriety. Of course, it's a given that part of the process requires lying about the bits that are unpleasant. Case in point: the truth about Michael's demise. Everyone's intentions are good, but one is still hard pressed to find an honest character among Gillies' large cast. Even Michael, who died while in the throes of teenage petulance, is a sometimes snarky observer. Gillies paints lovely, expansive landscapes and richly dimensional characters, which enhance the attractiveness of this intriguing first novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)