Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance is the debut novel by John Waters, published on May 3, 2022, by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Plot
Con artist and thief Marsha "Liarmouth" Sprinkle orchestrates a heist at the Baltimore/Washington International Airport with her partner in crime Daryl, who she has promised sex once a year. They are caught during their luggage theft scheme and are separated. They continue their thieving ways apart, and Daryl's penis starts talking. Liarmouth is also estranged from her mother, Adora, who operates a cosmetic surgery business for pets. Her daughter, Poppy, is the leader of a trampoline park outside Baltimore, where she and her posse of adult trampoline fanatics find therapeutic release in bouncing nonstop. After Marsha turns up and steals their money, Poppy decides she must kill her mother. Liarmouth then steals from her mother, and a chase ensues with the three women coming to Provincetown, Massachusetts, for a family reunion of sorts.
Style
The novel's is characterized by a loose plot, which according to The New York Times "unfurls as a tangled ribbon of manic events untouched by the logic of cause and effect." It is also defined by Waters' absurd and vulgar style of humor, represented in its physical gags and slapstick elements.
Reception
Publishers Weekly called the work "hilariously sleazy" and praised Water for sustaining humor throughout. Molly Young of The New York Times praised Waters' brand of "weirdo" hyberbole, and felt he made a rare achievement in that "every character thinks and speaks exactly like the author", and to success. Henry Bankhead of Library Journal deemed it "nothing short of stunningly outrageous—a nonstop smorgasbord of theft, deceit, and rancor fueled by an unrelenting, unabashedly sexualized comic genius."
Film adaptation
In October 2022, Deadline announced that Village Roadshow Pictures optioned the novel for a film adaptation, with Waters set to write the screenplay and direct. It will be Waters' first directorial effort since A Dirty Shame (2004).