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MILTON, Mass., Mar 9, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- The daughter of Pulitzer Prize-winner Bernard Malamud reveals intimate details about her father in her book, including his affair with a college student.
Janna Malamud Smith's "My Father Is a Book" hits U.S. store shelves this month, The New York Times reported Thursday. Ironically, her 1997 book, "Private Matters," dismissed our current tell-all culture and argued there are some things that should always remain private, the newspaper noted.
But now, Smith says, she decided to spill her family's intimate secrets because she wanted to control over what was said and wanted to write the book while her mother was alive.
"Writing a memoir, you're still in control," she said, adding about her mother, "I needed her to tell me where I was wrong."
Malamud, who died in 1986, won a Pulitzer Prize and two National Book Awards. Smith describes him as a devoted and gentle father, but reveals his affair and the student, who remained in his life for 20 years.
His wife, Ann Malamud, 88, told the Times despite her strong bond with her husband, they both had affairs.
"Other relationships sometimes happen in life of various sorts," she said. "That does not mean that they destroy everything."
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
