The narrator of Attention-Seeking Behaviour, a woman in her mid-twenties, is 'complex, creative and nasty.' She is also, by her own admission, a compulsive liar. Trying to break this habit for the sake of Normal Ben, an honest and uncomplicated man, she looks back over her life. By turning to writing she attempts an honest reckoning with her long history of deception, its psychological roots, and the terrible cost it has exacted on her romantic and professional relationships. But can we believe a word she says? Hilarious, sexy, and politically astute, Attention-Seeking Behaviour is at once a personal confessional and a critical history of lie detection methods and their role in modern policing. Blending fiction and non-fiction - memoir, novel, and essay - it wields confession shamelessly while positively embracing the proximity of literature and lying.
