The power of reticence …

… Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life — The Barnes & Noble Review. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Lee’s biography does not leave us feeling we know Fitzgerald’s innermost thoughts, but it seems that no one really did. And, indeed, the impossibility of mutual understanding between people is one of her themes. Beyond that, the accounts Fitzgerald gave of her doings were as likely to be as fictional as episodes from her novels. She was notoriously evasive, not averse to the lie, and even masqueraded as the dotty old lady people seemed to want her to be. She knew the power of reticence and knew that modesty is not the same as humbleness.