Adelle Waldman On Why She Now Defends The Main Character Of 'The Love Affairs Of Nathaniel P'

Why This Author Defends The Male Protagonist She Created To Critique

Adelle Waldman's debut novel "The Love Affairs Of Nathaniel P" explores the inner-working of an often misogynistic protagonist, Nate. The author explained that while she intended for him to read that way, Nate's not as flawed as some might think.

"Sometimes I wanna defend Nate to those who dislike him the most and it's funny because I wrote the book, in large part, as a critique of men," she told HuffPost Live's Ricky Camilleri in an interview on Monday. "So I'm surprised of being in the position of wanting to defend him."

"But I do think that a lot of the things that people object to most in Nate are his private thoughts," she continued. "We're privy to his inner-life, so he thinks things about women's appearances and their clothes that aren't very nice, but he's not voicing those things aloud."

"The Love Affairs" is Waldman's first piece of published fiction and took her five years to write. It was hailed as the "Best Book of 2013" by The New Yorker, The Economist, and Book Forum, among others.

Watch her full conversation with HuffPost Live below:

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