“The Woman Behind the Attic”

Got a hold of that V.C. Andrews biography, The Woman Behind the Attic, written by her ghostwriter, Andrew Niederman. I’ve always been curious what kind of person could have produced the kind of stories she did.

I’m not far in, but he is complimentary and respectful of her so far, emphasizing her gifts and talents and the things tha made her special. I was oddly surprised; I was somehow expecting it to be a little more patronizing, which may or may not be fair.

I think it comes from this keen sense I have that it’s tricky to honestly represent how simultaneously talented and flawed she was as an artist. I feel like there’s a lot of nuance that needs to be acknowledged to really capture a writer like her, one who had real skill and charm to be captivating, and yet whose work was marred by what probably was a fundamentally arrested, adolescent perspective. It’s probably easy to fawn (especially since her brainchild is this writer’s bread and butter) but also easy to hold in contempt.

I wonder if he’ll get the balance. I’ve seen people characterize his vision of her work and style as missing the component that made it remarkable despite its failings— the understanding of how many girls feel coming into womanhood is at once gaining a power and a vulnerability, the girl hunger and the girl rage. If he didn’t grasp her work, will he have the ability to grasp HER?