The Absent Woman cover art

The Absent Woman

The Genius of Janet Malcolm

Pre-order free with Premium Plus
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Absent Woman

By: Eve Sneider
Narrated by: Patricia Shade
Pre-order free with Premium Plus

Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Pre-order for $29.24

Pre-order for $29.24

About this listen

An illuminating critical biography of one of our most influential nonfiction authors, New Yorker journalist Janet Malcolm.

A titan of American letters, Janet Malcolm was a writer with a far-reaching impact and cultlike following, even as she actively opposed being a literary celebrity. For The Absent Woman, journalist Eve Sneider, one of the first to be given access to Malcolm's archive, creates a portrait of this notoriously private writer and her work, delving into the people and themes that consumed her over a fifty-year career. From questions of narrative form to cultural criticism, psychoanalysis, and the role of subjectivity, Sneider explores these obsessions of Malcolm's through her manuscript drafts, lauded but controversial books, photographs, correspondence, art, and interviews with those who knew her. The Absent Woman grapples with the ethical questions of writing biographical profiles, which led to highly publicized trials between former Freudian psychoanalyst Jeffrey Masson and Malcolm, and illustrates the many ways in which Malcolm's essays and books were vehicles for Malcolm to understand herself.

No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.