Liars, con men, and imposters

Grifters, swindlers, frauds, pathological liars, scammers, imposters, tricksters--our world seems to be full of them these days–and they’re in our TV and books, as well. Netflix, in particular, seems obsessed with this topic, as they released The Tinder Swindler and Inventing Anna in 2022, and recently released Bad Surgeon, about glorified regenerative medicine “supersurgeon” Paolo Macchiarini, who was eventually revealed to be a complete fraud, and a murderer. 

Why do we find these individuals so fascinating? Is it how smoothly they are able to lie and manipulate people? Is it the sheer scale of what they are able to get away with? I don’t know the answer to these questions, but I do know that I am reaching a tipping point in being able to stomach these kinds of stories any more, stories of arrogant, morally bankrupt individuals who use people to satisfy their own perverse needs and desires. 

Cue The Fury, by Alex Michaelides.

A fan of Michaelides's previous novels, The Silent Patient and The Maidens, I was very excited to read The Fury when it came out. It tells the story of former movie star Lana Farrar, a goddess whom everyone seems to be in love with, including our narrator, Elliot Chase. When Lana discovers that her husband Jason is having an affair with her “good friend” Kate, Elliot encourages her to confront them about it while they are all on vacation at her home on a private island in Greece. That way, they can’t just run away. 

While it is evident from the very first page that Michaelides is a master storyteller and craftsman, I didn’t like this particular novel because I never came to like the narrator. When you have a villain as the main character (I’m thinking of Humbert Humbert in Lolita), you still have to make that character likable or at least worthy of the reader’s sympathy; otherwise, you’ll lose them. While Michaelides gives us details about Elliot’s tragic young life–how his parents were abusive and alcoholic, how he was mercilessly bullied in school, how he found himself out on the street as a teenager–I never really felt for this character. I didn’t like his coy little asides or his arrogance, and when he started to reveal even darker, more sordid details about himself, I just wanted to stay STOP. I don't need to hear any more.

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In her TikTok series “Who TF Did I Marry?” which has gone viral, Reesa Teesa tells, in great detail, the story of how she met, married, and divorced a pathological liar, who she refers to as “Legion.” The series has gotten well over 4 million views, making Teesa an overnight celebrity.

While there is the shock factor of someone marrying a person, only to find out that everything he has told her has been a lie, I think it is Teesa’s personality that makes the series so compelling. She methodically chronicles what happened to her in a calm, self-assured voice, but doesn’t hesitate to point out how she overlooked certain red flags. The best part, in my opinion, is later in the series when she, in her own words, becomes the “FBI and CIA,” intent on tracking down the truth about her husband. She locates his divorce records and calls his ex-wife; she calls the university that he said he attended to see if he was ever there; she finds obituaries of his deceased relatives–basically, she takes back her power by unearthing his lies, and begins to make a plan for how to kick him out of her life. 

Teesa just landed a deal with Creative Arts Agency in Los Angeles, is being courted by various brands, and may be taking that much-wanted trip to London soon, so I think it’s safe to say that she will be having the last laugh.