{"product_id":"difficult-women-isbn-9781681371498","title":"Difficult Women","description":"\u003cb\u003eDavid Plante's dazzling portraits of three influential women in  the literary world, now back in print for the first time in decades.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDifficult Women\u003c\/i\u003e presents portraits of three extraordinary, complicated, and, yes, difficult women, while also raising intriguing and, in their own way, difficult questions about the character and motivations of the keenly and often cruelly observant portraitist himself. The book begins with David Plante’s portrait of Jean Rhys in her old age, when the publication of \u003ci\u003eThe Wide Sargasso Sea\u003c\/i\u003e, after years of silence that had made Rhys’s great novels of the 1920s and ’30s as good as unknown, had at last gained genuine recognition for her. Rhys, however, can hardly be said to be enjoying her new fame. A terminal alcoholic, she curses and staggers and rants like King Lear on the heath in the hotel room that she has made her home, while Plante looks impassively on. Sonia Orwell is his second subject, a suave exploiter and hapless victim of her beauty and social prowess, while the unflappable, brilliant, and impossibly opinionated Germaine Greer sails through the final pages, ever ready to set the world, and any erring companion, right.“\u003ci\u003eDifficult Women\u003c\/i\u003e is creepy, it is cruel, it is morally indefensible — and it is exhilarating….There may be no defending these heartless portrayals, but there’s also no denying their power. Each scene is expertly staged, and burns with the same dark excitement you find in Mary Gaitskill’s fiction or Harold Pinter’s plays, the feeling that these characters have sought one another out to exercise hidden fears and desires, to expose primal wounds. \" —Parul Sehgal, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A delicious sequence of character sketches, interrupted by the occasional self-interrogatory aside....the book succeeds because the women are so horribly alive.” —Christine Smallwood, \u003ci\u003eHarper’s\u003c\/i\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Like its three subjects, \u003ci\u003eDifficult Women \u003c\/i\u003eis consistently  interesting. It’s as if Mr. Plante were staring out over a wild and  rugged topography of femaleness and wondering how one lives in such a  land. It’s a good question and a good book.” —Anatole Broyard, \u003ci\u003eThe New  York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The memoir of Jean Rhys . . . is a remarkable  achievement. . . . Plante never forgot who Jean Rhys really was and what  made her valuable, so that while he captures neatly the shabby  dishevelment of the narcissistic girlwoman fallen into confused old age,  he also achieves full recognition for the writer whose eloquence and  maturity are endlessly redeeming. . . . [Plante] brings these extremely  interesting women to brilliant, mythic life.” —Vivian Gornick\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[Plante’s] best book to date is \u003ci\u003eDifficult Women\u003c\/i\u003e, an  unflattering account of his friendship with Sonia Orwell, Jean Rhys and  Germaine Greer. He...tells it pretty much like it was—and like he was,  you imagine.\" —\u003ci\u003eLondon Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eDavid Plante\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of several novels, including his lauded Francoeur Trilogy —\u003ci\u003eThe Family\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Country\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Woods\u003c\/i\u003e. He has also written several works of nonfiction in addition to \u003ci\u003eDifficult Women\u003c\/i\u003e, most recently \u003ci\u003eThe Pure Lover\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBecoming a Londoner\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eWorlds Apart\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eScott Spencer\u003c\/b\u003e has written eleven novels, including \u003ci\u003eEndless Love\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWalking the Dead\u003c\/i\u003e, and the forthcoming \u003ci\u003eRiver Under the Road\u003c\/i\u003e. He has also written journalism for \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHarper’s Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGQ\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eRolling Stone\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives in upstate New York.","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302600233189,"sku":"NP9781681371498","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781681371498.jpg?v=1767725115","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/difficult-women-isbn-9781681371498","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}