“The Lie” is a short story by Raymond Carver that appeared in his 1983 collection Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories. It’s about a husband who confronts his wife over an accusation against her by a mutual friend. She vehemently denies the claim, and the husband tries to figure out who to believe. Here’s a summary of “The Lie”.
“The Lie” Summary
A wife claims something is a lie. The woman who told it is jealous. She entreats her husband to believe her. The husband doesn’t see why the woman would lie about it. She’s a friend to both of them and has nothing to gain by making it up.
The wife insults the woman and says she’s not a friend for saying something like that. She questions how he could believe such an outright lie. She takes off her hat, gloves and coat. She continues to proclaim her innocence and ask her husband to believe her. He wants to believe her but this statement, lie or not, has come between them now.
The man goes to the window and looks at the traffic below. He tries to work through the situation. He thinks about his marriage, honesty versus falsehood, a movie that blurs the line between fiction and reality, and the things Tolstoy said (in the biography he’s reading) about truth. He remembers a true friend from high school, a pleasant and good person, who was an inveterate liar. He’s overjoyed to find this precedent that supports his wife’s claim. Some people lie uncontrollably; no doubt, his informant is such a person.
As he comes to this conclusion, his wife sits on the couch, covers her face and admits it’s true. She was ashamed and didn’t want him to believe it. The man thinks he understands.
The wife kicks off her shoes, takes off her sweater and lights a cigarette. She asks her husband about his day, other than this, of course. She steps out of her skirt and sits back down.
His day was fine. The police came to the building with a warrant looking for someone down the hall. The water was shut off for a half hour for some repairs. He also read a good portion of the Tolstoy book.
His wife stretches and shakes out her long hair. She starts popping cocktail nuts into her mouth between draws on the cigarette. She slips out of her undergarments and settles into the couch. She asks about the book. It was interesting. His fingers tingle and he feels weak.
His wife calls him over tenderly. He says he wants the truth. He drops to the carpet and crawls to the couch, putting his head on a cushion. She runs her hand through his hair. Although smiling, her eyes look very sad.
She calls him endearing Russian names, talks to him like a child as she asks how he could believe that nasty lady. She tells him to rest his head on her and close his eyes. He should know her better than that. Lying is a sport for some people.
I hope this summary of “The Lie” by Raymond Carver was helpful.