Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday

Alice's curiosity peaks as she continues down her own rabbit hole

Lisa Halliday's debut novel Asymmetry has divided opinion; just look at the divergent commentary from The New York Times to reader reviews on Amazon. On the one hand, champions of character based literary fiction argue that the novel is an intelligent work worthy of endorsement by the late Philip Roth. On the other hand there are those readers who find Asymmetry a loosely plotted and confusing collection of three disjointed novellas. The publishers are, no doubt, relishing the conversation; isn't that the point of great fiction? 

In the first part of the novel 'Folly' a young editor in New York, named Alice, meets and falls for a celebrated older writer, Ezra Blazer. Halliday's characterisation is completely convincing, in fact much has been written about her own relationship some years ago with Philip Roth. Alice's curiosity peaks as she continues down her own rabbit hole with the older writer.

In 'Madness', the second part of the novel, we meet economist Amar who is being interviewed by immigration officers at Heathrow Airport whilst on his way to Kurdistan to see his brother. Despite the odd recurring motif there is little to connect this story with 'Folly'either contextually or stylistically, or is there?

Finally, in the third part of the novel we find a brilliantly well crafted transcript of an episode of BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs featuring Ezra Blazer himself speaking about his life through a hypothetical playlist.  

The problem with Asymmetry is that Halliday keeps us waiting right until the very end before even the merest hint that these stories are connected. Chances are that many readers will have abandoned ship before the reveal; a simple case of too little too late. Halliday is certainly an accomplished writer but the concept of Asymmetry is just too clever for its own good. Somewhere in the text there is a brilliant story about Alice and Ezra Blazer that still needs to be fully developed.

Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday published by Granta, 272 pages

Agree with my review? Comment and share to join the discussion #readmorebooks