Saturday, January 05, 2008

Everything I didn't need to know, I learned at Lush

The forum, specifically. I was not aware until I read a post there that as a teenager Anne Perry had been convicted of helping a friend kill the friend's mother.

I've enjoyed her books for years without knowing this. When I mentioned it to Mom, she was appalled and immediately said I should stop reading/buying Perry's books.

On the one hand, I do see her point. This person helped commit a truly horrible crime--why should she have a nice life with big fat profits? On the other hand, I'm sure that one person not buying her books is going to change her lifestyle one iota, and she has served her time and possibly is truly remorseful.

Right now, I'm re-reading my way through all of the Perry novels I have, and wondering if that will help me make up my mind.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

*blinks*
Wowza.

Murphy Jacobs said...

Wait, was this the case about the two girls in Australia/New Zealand? I read something about that a while back (on Wikipedia?). Interesting story, really.

I don't see that buying the books means you condone what what done those years ago. If you are going to avoid literature written by those who did things you do not condone, you're gonna have to eliminate a lot of good reading :)

Anonymous said...

Without knowing the whole story, can't really comment on that.

Being the huge sports fanatic I am, I learned a while ago to seperate what someone does on the field from what they do otherwise. (Sam McDowell was one of my favorite Indians while growing up - turned out he pitched most of the time with a hangover.)

I could understand why your mom would say what she did. But if it were me i don;t know as that would make that much of a difference.

Becs said...

I saw some "60 Minutes" story on her years ago and so stayed away from her books. I've recently checked out from the library her first three books. I don't know if she's gotten any better, but she doesn't really impress me as a writer.

Still, she has a following. Then again, so do Nora Roberts, Danielle Steel and that horrible Nicholas Sparks.

Scott said...

I first heard about this back in the nineties sometime. It may have been when Heavenly Creatures, the movie based on the incident, came out. I've never read any of her books, but I don't think she's cashing in on her crimes. No one knew she had taken part in a murder until she was outed by a journalist years ago.

One of my favorite authors is William S. Burroughs and back in the fifties he accidentally shot and killed his wife. So like Sherri said, you're going to eliminate a lot of good reading if you avoid authors who did bad things.