More on Lionel

Thanks to Iliana for the tip off on Lionel Shriver not being her original name. I Googled and found this BBC article (scroll down) that says that Shriver changed her name at 15 from Margaret-Ann and quotes her as saying "I wanted to be a boy, but I have to add - it didn't work." And The Last Word Book Club has a more detailed write-up and biographical information. And Robert Brienbaum has a long and well done interview with Shriver on Identity Theory. She doesn't mention the name change but it talks in depth about the book and about children and her educational background. It certainly made me more interested in reading the book, especially since she seems such and odd duck. And to the people out in critic-land who have been questioning whether the Orange Prize was a waste of time and ghettoized women, you need to really step back and get over yourselves. I never would have heard of Shriver or been interested in her if it weren't for the Orange Prize. I think I can safely say that it's probably true for a few other people out there too. So how can that make the Prize such a bad thing?