A Tissue of Lies
by Mike Nemeth
The Eddie Kovacs origin story and the prequel to The Two Lives of Eddie Kovacs.
At a time when political leaders were brazenly assassinated, inalienable civil rights had to be guaranteed by legislation, race riots disfigured the American landscape, the existential threat of nuclear annihilation hung over the land, and a controversial war shaped social consciousness, the blue collar Kovacs family struggled to achieve the American Dream.
In 1966, fifteen-year-old Eddie, the neglected middle child, harbored a dream that strained the family's limited resources and sparked a contentious relationship with Dad. Danny, the eldest son, dreamt of becoming a professional baseball player, a dream Dad vowed to make come true at any cost. Mom wanted to escape her hand-to-mouth existence and was not above deceit to achieve her goal. When Danny received his draft notice, everyone's dreams were shattered.
During that fateful summer, Eddie, with the help of his rebellious friend, Marcy, discovered Danny's explosive secret, unraveled Mom's buried lies, and uncovered Dad's underhanded tactics to rescue Danny's career. In a vain attempt to win Dad's approval, Eddie contrived a devious and risky scheme for Danny to evade the draft and pursue his dream. Eddie had no idea how the unintended consequences would change his and his family's lives forever.
A Tissue of Lies is the coming-of-age story that defines the Baby Boomer generation. To learn what happened to Eddie, read the sequel, The Two Lives of Eddie Kovacs.
‘George Orwell looked interesting because I'd heard the debates about his books. I pulled 1984 and Animal Farm from the shelf, then moved to the Action and Adventure row where I grabbed several James Bond books to stack in front of me to hide what I was reading. I sat at an unoccupied table and laid my camera atop my book-castle, ever watchful for adults who might rip 1984 from me.’
A Tissue of Lies by Mike Nemeth is a remarkably different coming-of-age story set in the late 1960s, with several clever, unexpected twists.
The Prologue sends us back to 1970 – a year when the Vietnam War continued to claim thousands of lives, on both sides. Young Eddie, just out of high school, has received a draft notice, and is looking for a way to avoid being pulled into a war no one can win. But as he prepares to muddle up his interview, we return to the year 1966, when his family was first confronted with the spectre of Vietnam.
In an unassuming American small town, fifteen-year-old Eddie lives with his parents, his older brother, Danny, and younger sister, Carla. Feeling left out of the family loop – his father dotes on Danny, a sure future star baseball player, whilst their mother sides with Carla – he tends to do his own thing, heading out with his camera and focusing on volunteering during mass at the local church. And Eddie has Abby, his grandmother; ’Gram’, whom he adores.
A keen Catholic, Eddie hopes to continue his schooling at a seminary, with a view to becoming a missionary. Not content with serving a community in his home area, he sets his sight on joining the Salvatorians. It's his dream, and Eddie doesn't care how his father – who does the accounting of the weekly donations from mass for the local church – raises the money.
But his dad's attention – and financial support – is solely focused on Danny and his blossoming baseball career. Having had to cut his own sporting career short for the Korean War, he is sure his eldest will succeed – at any cost.
But when Eddie manages to take photos of Danny in a compromising situation, the boy seizes his chance at getting his dad to pay for his seminary.
He enlists the help of Marcy, a clever, lone girl in his class, whose parents are separated. Together, they plot how to blackmail Eddie's father into paying for his education. But then, by chance, they come across other ’sinners’. Snap!
But Eddie's plan comes to naught when Danny receives a notification to enlist. Finished with school, not in a vital job, and at the right age to fight, Danny would be the perfect cannon fodder for the American army machine operating in Vietnam's hostile environment. A thought neither of their parents would accept. Here, it is the family's dismissive views of their own government at war that is quite revealing.
Meanwhile, after losing his beloved Gram, Eddie and Marcy dig into the family's past, and uncover a secret that may undo his own future as a Catholic missionary.
When Eddie and Marcy devise a plot to get Danny off the army roll, with Danny's reluctant agreement, they weren't to know that the pandora's box they opened would lead to much more than just a rejection from the army. It threatens to break up the whole family...
A Tissue of Lies is an open, direct, and unpretentious tale of an average American family trying to make ends meet, whilst coming to terms with their – and their ancestors’ – past. The threat of the Vietnam war and the Cold War are ever-present, hovering over people's lives.
The attitudes of the Kovacs and their environment are typical of the 1960s. The book hints at those from better off families, who can afford to bribe doctors to get their sons off the hook for ’medical reasons’, while lower class families had to be more inventive if they wanted to avoid their sons becoming cannon fodder. Eddie's family is in the latter group, and both the parents’ and Eddie's plans seem ludicrous, seen through 21st-century eyes – yet it was the harsh, cruel reality.
The novel stays firmly confined in the 1960s, with its engrained sexism, pretence faith, false morality, and open racism and homophobia. The blunt prose reflects these views, but always within the context of the characters. Some readers may feel uncomfortable with the direct terminology used, yet I thought it was necessary to show the reality as it was. Prejudice, fear, and discrimination were rife beneath the brittle veneer of societal norms, and ultimately, each character was after their own advantage. It is eye-opening to see the world as it was then, without the rose-tinted glasses or any hints at fake nostalgia that is so often prevalent in novels about the era.
Eddie is a character torn between his seemingly strong faith, and his eagerness to receive his father's approval. But whilst his faith appears beyond doubt, his actions tell us otherwise. He lies, steals, takes illicit photographs of people, and generally doesn't act like a boy with a vocation. It is his scheming that stops us from liking him. He's a chancer, first and foremost, and out for his own gain: getting into the seminary school by any means possible. He lies to his parents and the priests with the ease of a manipulator. As the child that neither parent wanted – only his Gram – it's somewhat understandable. He must carve his own fate, because no one else cares. But it makes for hard reading at times.
The character who really spoke to me was Marcy. Highly intelligent, from a volatile home, she's a dare-devil who Eddie befriends. She ’borrows' banned books from the library, and reads widely as a result. Her attitude makes her seem far older than a mere teenager, but it's her family background that really shapes her. Her life is even harder than Eddie's, and I'd have liked to discover more about her.
In A Tissue of Lies, Mike Nemeth weaves a complex, intriguing web of family dynamics into the social and political environment of the 1960s. This is not a loving, caring picture postcard family – the parents live with their shattered dreams, and their sole ambition is to see their favourite kids thrive where they couldn't. They refuse to address anything that may disrupt their plan, so Eddie is brushed aside, whilst his siblings receive all the attention.
A Tissue of Lies leaves us readers with a blunt, eye-opening awareness of blue-collar family life in 1960s America. It's not pretty – nor is it even trying to be – but it's definitely fascinating to discover their world.
I recommend A Tissue of Lies to readers who prefer to explore the social aspects of the 1960s and 1970s, realistically, without rose-tinted glasses – and with all its personal ambitions, false pretences, rumbling dissatisfaction, fervent discrimination, and the ensuing effects on individuals who simply try to live their lives. Well worth checking out!
Review by Cathie Dunn
The Coffee Pot Book Club
Mike Nemeth is a retired IT executive living in suburban Atlanta with his wife, Angie, and their rescue dogs, Sophie and Scout. The novels Defiled (Amazon bestseller) and The Undiscovered Country (winner of the Beverly Hills Book Award for Southern Fiction) are prescriptions for America's social ills disguised as crime fiction thrillers.
Mike is also sports fan and has written nonfiction books about college basketball and college football. Previously Mike wrote The Missing Ingredient, an article published in the New York Times which explained why college football rankings are always wrong.
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