Jennie Erdal (1951–2020)

A fascinating but frustrating autobiography of Jennie Erdal herself and her relationship with her employer, “Tiger”, a very individual London publisher. The narrative starts really well with a parallel telling of Jennie’s provincial Scottish upbringing and her meeting with Tiger in 1981, her appointment as Russian editor, subsequent selection and commissioning of translations and then her move to the editing of Tiger’s interviews. Throughout this she skilfully integrates her thoughts about language, translation and then ghost writing. There is also an enlightening description of their meeting with Leni Riefenstahl, reflecting on the ambiguity of Leni’s artistic achievement, given her links to the Nazi regime.

About half way through the book (in 1994), Jennie is asked by Tiger to ghost write a romantic novel, then ghost write a further novel, a regular weekly newspaper column and magazine articles. This is interesting, as Jennie sets out the difficulties of ghost writing especially those arising from a woman ghost writing for a man, and her financial necessity for doing the work. However Jennie realises the moral ambiguity of her work, which she does touch on, but does not sufficiently analyse for me. This is the frustrating weakness of the memoir, with it having seemed clear sighted up until this point. She is honest, but it doesn’t feel like the whole truth. We also never understand quite why Tiger acts as he does, but then perhaps Jennie never quite works this out.
To end with an apposite quote:
Autobiography is unreliable. A lot of what we remember is designed to protect us from painful truths. As is a lot of what we forget, or choose to forget.… (mer)

I get the feeling this book would be very entertaining if the author ever revealed who the real-life "Tiger", her megalomaniac boss, is. I also get the feeling that most people in the (European) publishing world probably know exactly who he is. Since I don't, I read the book with the decided feeling of the one who isn't in on the joke. Tiger comes across as a jackass, and the author (Ms. Erdal) seems to be in a passive-aggressive codependent professional relationship with him. Okay, but why should I care?Structurally, I found it extremely odd that the author continually rambled on tangents about her childhood that seem to have nothing to do with her experiences ghost-writing. Perhaps to justify why she stayed in this mess of a relationship, I suppose. To sum up, this book isn't really about an interesting experience ghost-writing. It is a very average book about a boring woman and a horrible boss.… (mer)