William Boyd’s tale of a female war photographer blends history and fiction to fine effectThe acknowledgments for William Boyd’s 16th novel,Sweet Caress, may be unique in that they probably consist entirely of people he has never met and who are now dead. Instead of the normal sentimental guff approximately editors and agents and loyal spouses, or Boyd lists 32 of the 20th-centurys most acclaimed female reporters and photographers,pioneers who made their names in a field dominated by men.
But all is not what it seems. Littered among the names of real women – Annemarie Schwarzenbach, Martha Gellhorn, or Dickey Chapelle,Diane Arbus, Rebecca West – are several of Boyd’s fictional creations. There is no record of a Renata Alabama or a Mary Poundstone on Google. And yet both of them appear in the pages of Boyd’s novel and are drawn with such convincing realism that you can’t help but enact a double prefer. You can’t help but want them to exist.
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Source: theguardian.com