Fictionalized Meghan O'Rourke Apparently As Predictable As Real Meghan O'Rourke
In her front-page NYTBR review of Claire Messud's The Emperor's Children, Slate's Meghan O'Rourke reveals that:
As a 30-year-old Ivy League graduate employed by a "contrarian" publication and editing a cultural section like the one Seeley eventually hires Marina to run, I squirmed when the character expresses delight at her new job. It's "not ditsy cultural," she tells Danielle, "like listings — he wants essays, serious but controversial essays on cultural issues. ... Like, is PEN really a worthwhile institution. ... Or a renegade appraisal of modern art, the New York art scene, is Matthew Barney a fraud, that kind of thing." (I once tried to assign exactly that piece. Touch .)
We've not yet read Children, but if it's as good as the buzz we've heard has it, we will. Particularly if the Seeley character wants all his headlines to be posed as questions.
