We Chase Shadows

The motif of fake wellness products serves as the novel’s central metaphor for The Deceptive Nature of Appearances. Vern’s criminal enterprise is built on selling counterfeit vitamins, supplements, and health gadgets, a business that thrives by exploiting the gap between appearance and reality. Vern’s business model, which he defends by arguing that he only sells “things that have no scientific proof they work anyway […] [T]here’s no evidence at all that [his] fake pills are any worse than their real ones. Both pills will have zero effect, but [his] are cheaper” (31). Here, Osman satirizes a contemporary culture in which there’s an endless market for products that promise health, youthfulness, and wellness regardless of their actual efficacy. The products themselves are empty signifiers, representing a world where belief can be manufactured and sold and where the most successful deceptions are the ones that tell people what they want to believe. This foundation of fraud creates a world where nothing can be taken at face value, mirroring the constructed identities of the characters themselves.