AustLit

Alice Curry introduces her essay on 'the art of lying' in children's fiction with quotes from Wilde and Nietzsche that posit 'lying as an artistic form of self-expression, done knowingly, purposefully and with attention given to form and detail' (41). Her analysis of lying and storytelling in Hating Alison Ashley, by Australian author Robin Klein and Goggle-Eyes by British author Anne Fine discusses how in both novels, the young girl protagionists experience, and subsequently negotiate, unhappiness due to the 'introduction of an alien element' into their families.

In both novels the trauma of divorce or separation is compounded by the 'intrusion' of the mother's boyfriend/potential husband (41). She argues that the protgonists of both novels, Erica and Kitty, become 'honorary authors' by 'creating stories or constructing lies' as reactions to unhappiness and in doing so, gain 'self-confidence and subjectivity through increased possibility for self expression' (41). Curry argues the merits of 'the liberating effects of creative lying' (41) based on the ability of both protgonists to 'imagine a world in which they themselves have more than just limited agency, giving them the ability to find their own creative solutions to the problem of unhappiness' (47).