Novelist Flayed for Dissing Maddy's Family

Uproar after Anne Enright admits dislike in essay on McCanns
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 8, 2007 3:06 PM CST
Novelist Flayed for Dissing Maddy's Family
Irish writer Anne Enright holds a copy of her book after she won the Man Booker fiction prize for "The Gathering," an uncompromising portrait of a troubled family that its author called the literary equivalent of a Hollywood weepie, in London on Tuesday, Oct. 16 2007. Enright had been considered a long-shot...   (Associated Press)

Anne Enright’s recent essay about the Madeleine McCann saga might have passed with little notice, if only the Irish author hadn’t won the Man Booker Prize. Instead, newspapers raked her over the coals for a single line in which she said she “disliked the McCanns earlier than most people”—a soundbite that had some calling for a boycott of her novel.

Lost in the hubbub was the rest of the essay, the New York Times points out, which expressed shame for that impulse and rejected it. In Enright’s words, the essay was “an emotional journey full of nuance and contradiction and self-appraisal.” But, the Times points out, all her writings hinge on unresolved emotion. (More Booker Prize stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X