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In the annals of literary treachery,
there is a special place reserved for
David Plante and his memoir “Difficult
Women,” a portrait of three of his
friends (or so they believed): the
novelist Jean Rhys; the feminist writer
Germaine Greer; and Sonia Orwell,
George’s widow, who presided, in her
depressive fashion, over London’s
bookish set in the 1970s.
First published in 1983 (and now
reissued), the book had its champions,
notably the critic Vivian Gornick, but
many were horrified, in particular by
Plante’s treatment of Rhys. Elderly,
and fatally trusting, she is shown
tottering around with her pink wig on
backward, slugging gin and falling
drunkenly into a toilet. Plante took
faithful dictation as she carried on like
a character out of her own novels,
ranting and weeping, endlessly
victimized but breezily indifferent to
the suffering she inflicted. On the
death of her newborn son: “I wondered if it died while we were drinking
champagne.”
Few writers have betrayed confidences with such uninhibited malice.
“Difficult Women” is creepy, it is cruel, it is morally indefensible — and it is
exhilarating. As Dylan Thomas wrote: “When one burns one’s bridges,
what a very nice fire it makes.”
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