Culturebox: Joyce Maynard, Glib All Over Again

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doublex Joyce Maynard, Glib All Over Again A review of Joyce Maynard's The Good Daughters. By Libby Copeland Posted Friday, Aug. 27, 2010, at 7:29 AM ET Years after writing the 1972 New York Times Magazine essay that would make her famous as a voice of her generation (and ignite a brief love affair with J.D. Salinger), Joyce Maynard dissected that essay in her 1998 memoir At Home in the World. In it, she accused her 18-year-old self of a "fundamental dishonesty" in that Times essay. She said the essay was an effort by a "quintessential Good Daughter" to portray herself as "normal, happy, well-adjusted." The darker truth, she wrote, was that she was an almost maniacally driven anorexic with an alcoholic father. She went on to call her first memoir, Looking Back, published when she was 19, "facile" and "glib," and to accuse herself of giving readers "the tidy version" of herself. To continue reading, click here. Libby Copeland is a former reporter for the Washington Post, now writing in New York. She can be reached at libbycopeland@gmail.com. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate They Don't Make Literary Critics Like Frank Kermode Anymore. And That's Too Bad. The Absurd Charms of the New Kids in the Hall Series How Many Trees Do I Save by Reading Books on My Kindle?	Advertisement
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