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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

(Newser) – 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.

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...
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...   (Associated Press)
This March 2007 file photo released by the McCann family Friday, May 4, 2007, shows 3-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann. (AP Photo/McCann Family, HO)
This March 2007 file photo released by the McCann family Friday, May 4, 2007, shows 3-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann. (AP Photo/McCann Family, HO)   (Associated Press)
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...
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...   (Associated Press)
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...
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...   (Associated Press)
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