One reviewer noted, "Indeed, a tendency to blend other people's stories into her own is evident throughout Lying, from persuading childhood friends that she is dying because "'epilepsy causes cancer'" to joining an Alcoholics Anonymous support group without having a drink problem. Hence Slater's plagiarism extends well beyond the borrowing of speech and writing to include the appropriation of experiences with illnesses that her body has not known." And Rebecca Mead's , in her review for the New York Times wrote as she saw it: "Lying: A metaphorical memoir wants to be as charismatic and infuriating as an epileptic, which is a risky strategy, because when it does this most successfully, it is also at its most alienating. It's a tricky book-a sick book, even, metaphorically speaking." (For full review by Richard Ingram click here.)

There is a strong link between epilepsy and charismatic figures, and Slater may or may not be one. Maybe her's is a world of colored sounds and sparkling shapes and deep spins on the ice that spiral to depths others can never know, as she claims it is. But then, maybe it's not and it's the work of a good researcher who read all the right articles and wanted to see how far she could take an acting as if gig.

We may not be able to sort out the fact from fiction in this book, but I'm not sure we need to; I'm not sure that Slater herself can, because it is all real in that it is perceived by her. The world of epilepsy is not black or white or even shades of grey - it is colors that, for others, do not even exist. So how does one begin to explain what this is? It's like trying to explain color to someone who has never seen.

The site Nasty, in a review of Lying, cuts straight to the core of Slater's veracity, "As if to indicate just how unsettling Slater's melange of truths and lies can be, several reviewers of Lying, including myself, have felt compelled to investigate whether Hayward Krieger is a fictional character." Lying reeks of rat from the very first page," writes Rebecca Mead in the New York Times. "I was on the telephone to confirm my suspicion that there is no such person as Hayward Krieger before I'd even begun the first chapter" Natanya Pearlman conducted her inquiry on the Internet before reporting in Fabula Magazine that she had "visited USC's website, which lists faculty members, and found no one by the name of Hayward Krieger."

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Lying is the story behind the book itself. Slater may be better served by writing the truth about her life, whatever that is, without all this hedging and game-playing and plagiarizing (which, at least, she does admit to - see above link for more on that too). I have the sense that the truth behind Lying is a lot more interesting in the final account than the richly woven and albeit overall well-written and interesting, book we have here.