Linden MacIntyre's heroine, Effie Gillies, may reignite the debate about men writing women's roles, so dependent is this story on her inner life and relationships.
Linden MacIntyre's heroine, Effie Gillies, may reignite the debate about men writing women's roles, so dependent is this story on her inner life and relationships.
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Why Men Lie by Linden MacIntyre Jonathan Cape, £18.99 Reviewed by Lesley McDowell
Every so often, the question of how well one sex can capture the essence of the other in print is raised, especially when a writer does it as convincingly as MacIntyre does here.
Does any of this really matter, though? Surely, many will say, good writing is good writing and gender is neither here nor there. But this is precisely the kind of novel we associate with women writers, and that association is not beyond question. Macintyre's tale is slow, thoughtful, full of memories and a questioning of motives; precisely the kind of inner, more gentle narrative that once had a judge of the Orange Prize bemoan the lack of books by women on bigger subjects like war.
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