Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth
Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth is a piece of Contemporary Literature and an Autobiography by Australian author Ben Peek published in 2006 by Wheatland Press. The novel is written a semi-linear excerpt format, using 10 "blog posts" per chapter to tell the story of the novel's narrator and main protagonist, Ben Peek. The novel is based on Ben Peek's own Blog and some aspects of his own personal journal.
Plot
Author Ben Peek recounts his past relationships, musings, and life events through various alphabetical blog posts, categorized like an encyclopedia. Whilst many of the posts interconnect to form one event stretched out over time, many are stand alone passages AbOUT seemingly random topics. However, a large contingent of the posts are about other authors who have committed plagiarism, fraud, or somehow faked their writing. Since the novel does not have a traditional linear storyline, many of the plots are fragmented and need to be pieced together, or require rereading past entires. Other sub plots of the novel include his former relationship with "R" and the abortion R gets, his past (from the school-age death of his father to recent jobs), the death of "G" in a car accident, and other friends and acquaintances he meets in his life.
Characters
The characters are unique in Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth in that, with the exception of the author, no one is called by their full name, only single letter representations. There is also a character "index" included in the back of the book, however many of the entries are blacked out, indicating "the individual is no longer ACTIVE in the author's life". The lack of traditional character descriptions and names is unique of the blog format the novel is written in.
Ben Peek-Author and Narrator of Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth. A large, bald man with an auburn goatee. Often cynical and wry. Born and raised in Australia. Life story explain through novel.
Controversy
Much controversy has surrounded Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth. The first being the validity of the autobiography aspect of the book. While the book claims to be an autobiography, it is also listed as a work of contemporary fiction, implying that not all parts of the book are true, as people expect from an autobiography. This, however, may have been done to juxtapose the literary hoaxes described so frequently in the novel. Another controversial aspect is the persistent use of the "c-word" in the C chapter.
Reception
Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth was GeneRally well received by critics, who. Locus Magazine rated it as one of the most underrated books of 2006 and in their review said of the book: "Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth is a gently experimental text that uses a glossary of terms from A to Z to create vignettes, one-liners, and other supports for loosely connected narratives. Some are funny, some are most definitely not funny. All are lively and deserve your attention.". Rave Magazine says: "By painting vivid pictures of a life that’s as fascinatingly mundane as our own, he’s written something far better–no matter how many actual facts it contains. In the end, the truth has little to do with the facts.” Many critics cite the books intriguing style, wit, underlying message as positive facets of the novel.