Grappling with the work of our ‘art monsters’

Zora Simic explores the vexed question of whether one can separate the art from the artist.

Author Claire Dederer started off writing a book about the film director Roman Polanski. Forty-five years ago, Polanski fled the United States after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.

Samantha Galley (now Geimer), who was 13 years old in 1977 when she said she was drugged and raped by the director, has told her side of the story numerous times, including in her 2013 memoir The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski.

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