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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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Núbia Silva – n°29
Isabella Patez – n°13
Vitória Magalhães
Mariana ...