On a recent re-reading of “A Family Affair”, Stout’s last novel, Archie scorns the feminist daughter of a murder victim and derogates her collection of authors such as Betty Friedan and Simone de Beauvoir. Worse, at a conference with the operatives, when they’re dividing up assignments, he lets Saul take on the feminist as his assignment, and casually remarks that Saul might try raping her. For Stout to write that line in 1975, well into the first wave of feminism, shows a shocking disconnect with women, liberalism, and his own times. I finally got past my outrage by telling myself that Wolfe was 88 years old and possibly in cognitive decline. (We now know that dementia erases one’s mental filters.)
The book is not up to Stout’s usual standards, and ultimately only the shock value of its ending gives it a respected place on the shelf. Nevertheless, in the #metoo era, Archie’s contemptuous remark, even if out of character, grates in memory. It left a sour taste in my mouth, an offense that would have enraged Nero Wolfe.
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