“Sometimes I Lie” (post 1) by Alice Feeney: Will Truth Come Out at the End?

As I read this novel (1), I am beginning to think that expecting all of its true reality to come out at its end may be futile, like expecting to eventually meet the “real” or “original” personality in a person with multiple personality. 

In fact, the original personality of a person with multiple personality is often described as having been “put to sleep” or otherwise incapacitated because he or she could not cope with the person’s earliest trauma. In truth, the person’s regular, “host” personality, is not the original personality in most patients (2, p. 114).

The novel’s last numbered page (1, p. 258) is immediately followed by this:

“My name is Amber Taylor Reynolds. There are

three things you should know about me:

1. I was in a coma.

2. My sister died in a tragic accident.

3. Sometimes I lie.”

And the fact is, in the beginning of the novel, the first-person protagonist is named “Amber Reynolds.” Taylor, her friend, is another character. So her revealing herself as really named Amber Taylor Reynolds suggests that another character (or personality) had been named by using her real middle name, which would be a common way of naming an alternate personality in multiple personality.

1. Alice Feeney. Sometimes I Lie. New York, Flatiron Books, 2018.

2. Frank W. Putnam, MD. Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder. NewYork, The Guilford Press, 1989.