The liar's dictionary
by Eley Williams
Date: September 13th, 2022
Reviewed by: Donna Brown
We met to discuss the book, The Liar’s Dictionary, by Eley Williams, a young British professor and writer who grew up in a family immersed in words and dictionaries.
While not everyone enjoyed the book as a whole, it was the consensus that dictionaries must be fluid in nature, as words change in meaning over time. Also, imbedded in the story was the existence of mountweasels, or false words, as well as many metaphors, hyperboles, puns, turns of phrase. This made for a clever and fun read.
The Book
Our book took place over a century in the fictitious Swansby’s Encycolpedic Dictionary of Words. The thread in the story in the late nineteenth century was told through the eyes of Mr. Winceworth, a man who began inserting the false words as a manner of leaving his mark. He was not a part of the group of colleagues, feeling as if he did not fit. One hundred years later was Mallory, the single assistant to the present Mr. Swansby, who was trying to get his Encyclopedic Dictionary digitized. Mallory’s partner Pip took it upon herself to
discover which were the mountweasels, in order to stay in Mallory’s proximity after an anonymous threatening caller. Therein came the discussion of how words had changed their meanings in the ensuing century. The tie between Mr. Winceworth and Mallory was actually secondary to the extensive word play throughout, providing a bit of history on how dictionaries evolve. Definitely a good read for those who love language, however less so for lovers of a solid story line.