“The Book of Lies is funny, dark, sexy, shocking, and yes, smart. Set in the near future (‘decades after Stonewall’), the novel tells of a young scholar trying to make his academic bones on the literary bodies of the ‘Purple Circle’. Picano skewers the pedagogically pretentious with ease and wit. A wonderful novel, with some of Picano's best writing.”
— Bay Area Reporter
“Overall, the mature writing of Felice Picano and fellow ex-Violet Quill member, Edmund White, confirms what has been long suspected: the gay writing that has emerged from America over the last three decades is as consistently brilliant as writing has got. As a critique of the catastrophic changes undergone by the gay community, The Book of Lies is fascinating; as a brilliant story with a vicious twist, it’s superb. A highly recommended read.”
— George Lear,
Purefiction.com
“Based on Picano's involvement with the Violet Quill Club (which included Edmund White and Christopher Cox), this is an absorbing Henry James-style comedy of manners about how even when some writers find their way out of the closet, others still get left behind.”
— The Mail on Sunday
“Leave it to Felice Picano to add a walloping dose of melodrama and intrigue to a tale already redrawing genre boundaries … What Picano does is take an academic mystery (subject matter that might have proved tedious or solipsistic in lesser hands) and morphs it into something new – a page-turning, often campy, occasionally serious critique of academia and historical truth, literary celebrity, and the imminent future of America.”
— Philadelphia Tribune
“Picano treats his nonpulpy subject matter – grieving, the book business, the teaching business – in a pulpy way, and the results are surprisingly entertaining.”
— The New York Times Book Review
“Felice Picano’s Book of Lies has something guaranteed to please just about everyone ... an engaging, metafictive, literary whodunit ...”
— Lambda Book Report
“Felice Picano's new novel, his 19th book, is a story rich with history – a history that Picano himself was part of and helped shape ...”
— The Washington Blade
Felice Picano has cunningly sidestepped the pitfall of ‘writer as hero’ in his latest creation, The Book of Lies, and added a further twist, examining not only a group of writes and their work, but taking a hard look at the validity and integrity of literary criticism. Readers will immediately be reminded of Henry James’ The Aspern Papers, as well as touches of Passolini’s Theorem, in this thoroughly engrossing tale of literary and academic intrigue. The theme of coping with the mass loss of the 80s and 90s is subtle and well handled by Picano, and he's also thought-provoking on the issue of ghetto writing: The Gay Lit. world can't, on one hand, complain about marginilisation, and on the other, whine that straight people have neither right to study, nor any understanding of, gay literature. Most of all, he demonstrates the impossibility of empirical history: all is agenda.”
— Gay Times
“An exciting plot, believable dialogue and interesting characters ensure an entertaining read.”
— Gay Community News
“... Picano is successful in his gossipy recreation of the group of gay literary innovators.”
— Publishers Weekly
“... [A] novel that is smart and sexy and funny and historically compelling ... the best and most entertaining novel of 1999.”
— Bay Area Reporter
“Stunning Writing ... Part literary mystery, part history lesson, Felice Picano’s The Book of Lies, turned out to be a surprisingly engrossing read ... full of wit and humor, the dark tone of the ending caught me by surprise. I highly recommend this book.”
— Josh Aterovis, Killian Kendall series