The Conversation: authors Linden MacIntyre and Kyo Maclear on relationships, family and deception
The place: The Rooster Coffee House on Broadview | The people: authors Linden MacIntyre and Kyo Maclear | The subject: relationships, families and other reasons to deceive
Photography by Daniel Ehrenworth
True love is hard to find; truthful love, even harder. Whether between partners, family members or friends, all relationships rest on a few sneaky little fictions. For writers, this endless cycle of deceit is the stuff that award-winning books are made of. Linden MacIntyre won the Giller Prize in 2009 for The Bishop’s Man , about a priest trying to cover up the sins of his church. His new novel, with its Google-friendly title Why Men Lie , is about an older woman who has learned to be cautious, at least until she meets a man who seems too good to be true. (Spoiler alert: he is.) Kyo Maclear has written a lot about complex family dynamics. She used her experiences growing up as the only daughter of a mixed-race couple as fodder for Spork , her award-winning children’s book, as well as for her first novel, The Letter Opener . Her new novel, Stray Love , is about a man trying to forgive his adoptive father for failing to be entirely honest about his real parents. We bought these two tale spinners coffee and let them get to the bottom of things.
126220 My new novel is all about relationships at middle age, that point when men become shaky and stupid and women become more solid. Older women don’t feel the need to lie as much as men do. Men get insecure. The Conversation: Lie To Me The Conversation: Lie To Me https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mar12Conversation1-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mar12Conversation1.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mar12Conversation1.jpg 624 415 [] https://torontolife.com/city/the-conversation-linden-macintyre-kyo-maclear/slide/mar12conversation1/ mar12conversation1 0 0
126221 I can see that in the men I know who are aging, especially the ones who have defined themselves by their work. There’s an invisibility that comes when you’ve reached a certain age. The Conversation: Lie To Me The Conversation: Lie To Me https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mar12Conversation2-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mar12Conversation2.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mar12Conversation2.jpg 624 415 [] https://torontolife.com/city/the-conversation-linden-macintyre-kyo-maclear/slide/mar12conversation2/ mar12conversation2 0 0
126222 One inspiration for my book was a coal miner from Cape Breton who moved to Toronto after his retirement. He was a tough old dude. One day he was approached in a park by some young guys asking for smokes and change. They beat him up and pissed on him, just to humiliate him. The physical injuries weren’t that serious, but the emotional damage eventually killed him. It’s extreme, but not uncommon, that loss of virility and self-assurance. The Conversation: Lie To Me The Conversation: Lie To Me https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mar12Conversation3-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mar12Conversation3.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mar12Conversation3.jpg 624 415 [] https://torontolife.com/city/the-conversation-linden-macintyre-kyo-maclear/slide/mar12conversation3/ mar12conversation3 0 0
126223 The truth we tell each other is always weighted by what we need. People will lie outrageously just to get laid. And people will lie because they want to be loved—we feel we have to shape the narrative a bit.<br />
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If my book had an alternate title, it would be <em>Why Parents Lie</em>. Families of all kinds run on a kind of consensual deception. The Conversation: Lie To Me The Conversation: Lie To Me https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mar12Conversation4-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mar12Conversation4.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mar12Conversation4.jpg 624 415 [] https://torontolife.com/city/the-conversation-linden-macintyre-kyo-maclear/slide/mar12conversation4/ mar12conversation4 0 0
126224 My father was in London during the Blitz, and my mother experienced the Tokyo firebombing—but people of their generation don’t speak of certain things. A lot of things get tamped down. I think that’s why I’m so preoccupied with the past.<br />
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Things get conveyed whether they are verbalized or not. There are things I would never tell my children, but my behaviour speaks in a way that is perhaps more eloquent than my words. The Conversation: Lie To Me The Conversation: Lie To Me https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mar12Conversation5-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mar12Conversation5.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mar12Conversation5.jpg 624 415 [] https://torontolife.com/city/the-conversation-linden-macintyre-kyo-maclear/slide/mar12conversation5/ mar12conversation5 0 0
126225 In my family we’re always buying each other cat-themed gifts. We’ve ventriloquized a lot of our family drama through our cats. It’s a way of making it safe to talk about things. Cats are my father’s soft spot—I find Brits like animals more than they like other people. <br />
The Conversation: Lie To Me The Conversation: Lie To Me https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mar12Conversation6-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mar12Conversation6.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mar12Conversation6.jpg 624 415 [] https://torontolife.com/city/the-conversation-linden-macintyre-kyo-maclear/slide/mar12conversation6/ mar12conversation6 0 0
BOOK
Why Men Lie
Linden MacIntyre
In stores March 31
BOOK
Stray Love
Kyo MacLear
In stores March 24