Bel Canto author Ann Patchett has recently published Truth & Beauty, a non-fiction book about her friendship with poet and memoirist Lucy Grealy, who died of a heroin overdose in 2002. Now Grealy’s sister is crying foul: in a long essay for The Guardian, Suellen Grealy suggests that Patchett’s book has violated the family’s grief.

The piece raises age-old questions of a writer’s rights and responsibilities when dealing with real people, and it does so from a very personal vantage point. That makes for fascinating reading, but one could argue that Grealy’s raw hurt precludes any real objectivity or insight on the issue. See, for example, this outburst: “My sister Lucy was a uniquely gifted writer. Ann, not so gifted, is lucky to be able to hitch her wagon to my sister’s star. I wish Lucy’s work had been left to stand on its own.”

Related links:
Suellen Grealy’s piece in The Guardian