Janet Malcolm, provocative author-journalist, dies at 86

The author and journalist Janet Malcolm has died at age 86

NEW YORK -- Janet Malcolm, the inquisitive and boldly subjective author and reporter known for her challenging critiques of everything from murder cases and art to journalism itself, has died. She was 86. Malcolm died Wednesday at New York Presbyterian Hospital, according to her daughter, Anne Malcolm. The cause was lung cancer. A longtime New Yorker staff writer and the author of several books, the Prague native practiced a kind of post-modern style in which she often called attention to her own role in the narrative, questioning whether even the most conscientious observer could be trusted. “Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible” was how she began “The Journalist and the Murderer.” The 1990 book assailed Joe McGinniss’ true crime classic “Fatal Vision” as a prime case of the author tricking his subject, convicted killer Jeffrey MacDonald, who had asked McGinniss to write a book about him only to have the author conclude he was a sociopath. It was one of many works by Malcolm that set off debates about her profession and compelled even those who disliked her to keep reading.