Janet Malcolm: The Last Interview: And Other Conversations

Five interviewers face a famously intimading journalist in this enjoyable collection of conversations with the late Malcolm (1934–2021). As Katie Rophie writes in her introduction, “Janet herself did not connect with the image of herself as scary or brutal,” and, indeed, the “bright... generosity” Rophie recalls is apparent in these pages. A 2011 interview with the Paris Review offers insight into her writing process (“I often get stuck. Then I get sleepy and have to lie down.”), and a 2004 e-mail correspondence with Daphne Beal at the Believer reveals Malcolm’s thoughts on the form: “email encourages... a letting down of hair.” The final interview, published in the New York Times Book Review in 2019, reveals that Salley Rooney’s “brilliant, enigmatic” Normal People was on her nightstand. There’s a fair bit of repetition—readers unfamiliar with Malcolm’s popular quote that “every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible” may have it memorized after reading it four separate times. Even so, seeing the trajectory of Malcolm’s pointed observations over nearly two decades is a treat. Fans of the prolific writer will want to pick up this showcase of her characteristic wit. (June)