Novelists deny Obama-bashing

Tommaso De Benedetti’s striking anti-Barack Obama quotes from American novelists Philip Roth and John Grisham used to invoke envy in other reporters, until one, of them, in a Roth interview of his own, asked Roth what he meant when he told De Benedetti that Obama was "nasty, vacillating and mired in the mechanics of power." Roth replied he had never spoken to De Benedetti, a response echoed by Grisham, whom De Benedetti had quoted as saying, “People are angry with Obama for having done little or nothing and having promised too much." So far De Benedetti has not responded to those claims, while his interviews with Nobel laureates Toni Morrison and Herta Müller—who also referenced Obama—appear genuine.

The Guardian