Shapland focuses on the nature and problems of lesbians and the many indications that that was McCullers’ identity, but the story may inspire a discovery or rediscovery of the novels, plays, and memoirs of Carson McCullers, which are now too little known. Shapland takes a giant step further by making herself the primary personage in her narrative of her agonized journey in search of the origins of Carson McCullers’ sexuality. Virginia Spencer Carr, the author of the first major biography of Carson McCullers, involves herself indirectly in her biography of Paul Bowles. In recent years, biographers insinuate themselves into their books. It is only one of many types of associations I have had with them over the years, making me very receptive to Jenn Shapland’s innovative first book, My Autobiography of Carson McCullers. On the wall of my study you may see a photograph of Carson McCullers and Tennessee Williams that I cut out of a magazine when I was 14 in 1949.
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