The Absent Woman: The Genius of Janet Malcolm

When you know of Janet Malcolm, you spot traces of her everywhere.You understand that she was a titan of the written word - a longtime New Yorker staff writer, member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and National Book Award finalist - with a far-reaching impact and cult-like following.But if you don't know to look for her name, it is easy to miss - unlike some of her contemporaries, Malcolm was actively opposed to being a literary celebrity, even while famously controversial for challenging the notion of journalism's objectivity.The Absent Woman plumbs the Malcolm archives to uncover a portrait of this notoriously private writer and her work, and of the people and themes that she was consumed by in her over sixty-year career.From questions of narrative and truth to criticism and psychoanalysis to her decade-long case with Jeffrey Masson and the attacks she got from other critics, Eve Sneider reads Malcolm's obsessions in essays and books alongside her photographs, correspond