Book club: “The Expats” & how I’m a terrible liar

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This month’s From Left to Write book club pick is The Expats
by Chris Pavone.  The lead character, Kate Moore, is a former CIA agent, mother and wife that moves from Washington D.C. to Luxembourg, and can’t seem to escape a world of secrets.

There’s plenty of good themes in this book to expound on here in my personal response.  I started to write this post on dealing with the monotony of family life when your husband is not around, but that is so rant-y.  Then there’s the tired “can we as women ever have it all?” angle.  But that is tedious.  Here’s a light-hearted one:  I’m a terrible liar.

Like, really terrible.  I am almost physically incapable of telling lies sometimes.  If it doesn’t feel authentic to me, I can’t say it.  Naturally, this doesn’t serve me well in many social situations, so I guess it adds to my awkward personality.  I can’t pretend to like someone that I don’t.  I feel my skin crawl when someone says something that I disagree with and I have to bite my tongue.

You know how most people start spilling their secrets when they drink?  I remember an old episode of Dragnet where a man being questioned said “when the booze goes in, the truth comes out!”  Well I’m the opposite.  The only time I start lying about things is when I’ve been drinking.  Suddenly I’m happy go lucky and everyone is my friend Because in my day-to-day, I’m less easy going.

As if having a personal blog were not indication enough, I’m not a very private person.  I might be shy & awkward in person, but I’m not private.  I’ll spill the beans on a lot of things.  I don’t get it when people don’t do the same.  The fact that there’s people that are going through things and they’re keeping them inside, well, that baffles me.  I like to let it all out, because maybe someone else can offer me a viewpoint that will help me.

I guess one of my core values would be honesty/being genuine.  To me they are the same thing.  I know one thing for sure, I’d be an awfully lousy CIA agent!  What about you, are you good at lying and keeping secrets?  (Don’t worry, I won’t judge you.  I wish I was good at it!)

This post was inspired by mystery thriller novel The Expats by Chris Pavone.  Kate Moore happily sheds her old life to become a stay at home mom when her husband takes a job in Europe. As she attempts to reinvent herself, she ends up chasing her evasive husband’s secrets. Join From Left to Write on January 22 as we discuss The Expats.  As a member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes.