Saturday, February 04, 2006

The facts. Don't give me the facts
After James Frey, Kenneth J. Harvey opens a campaign for real fiction


AFTER READING JOHN BANVILLE’S Man Booker prize-winning The Sea, a slim volume trumpeted as fiction, I was startled to discover, upon perusing my hefty atlas, that this supposedly fantastical place named Ireland was an actual island. While reading, I thought it sounded familiar, yet I let it slide, not wanting niggling particulars to ruin the experience.

Stunned by my discovery, I was unsettled by other suspicions: What if the main character, this Max Morden, was an actual person. I explored the phone book and came up with four individuals bearing the name Maxwell Morden. Feeling more greatly duped, I telephoned the first three and demanded to know on what ground each stood. Yet despite repeated harassment, none would concede to being fictional.

To read the rest:
Books - reviews and literary news from The Times and The Sunday Times

with thanks to Kenneth J. Harvey for sending this link

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