Auden once said (speaking of Eliot) that any important writer was not a single figure but a household. I've come to think it is also true about any work of fiction (or maybe even about any work of art). The more conscious is one about one's creative activity, the more real and engaging and true to life members of one's household seem to the reader.

The only thing we can learn for sure about one as a person from one's artistic work is: is one true or false to oneself. Reader's embarrassment is a reaction to the author's falsehood. This falsehood may be very beautiful, compelling and endearing, we may be very eager to let ourselves be deceived or too inexperienced not to be deceived, but we can't help feeling it's not true.