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Thursday, March 20, 2008

All Writing Is Fiction

posted by on March 20 at 10:57 AM

(Christ, how many books posts can we have in one morning?)

Another misery-memoir about a horrible childhood—this one by Ishmael Beah, about child soldiering in Sierra Leone, the one endorsed by Starbucks—was maybe kinda made up in some parts.

The Australian claimed the bust months ago, but the publicity is snowballing, with articles in Slate, the Village Voice, MediaBistro, etc.

Sounds like Beah embellished his actually sad story to get out of Sierra Leone and into the U.S. (who wouldn’t?), then stuck with it (ditto), then got a book deal.

… Wilson, the Australian reporter, believes that Beah “beefed up” his story to get to the United States and then got locked into it.

In other (old) literary news, David Mamet has come out as a conservative.

As a child of the ’60s, I accepted as an article of faith that government is corrupt, that business is exploitative, and that people are generally good at heart.

Whatever, David. We’ve got American Buffalo. Nobody cares what you think about Milton Friedman.

RSS icon Comments

1

I can't believe the man behind Glengarry Glen Ross could go so wrong. But I shouldn't be surprised. He is a baby boomer, after all.

Posted by tsm | March 20, 2008 11:14 AM
2

Highly-respected smarty-pants white guy becomes famous, makes money, gets old, becomes conservative. Film at eleven.

The man is thinking with his tax bracket. It's a common issue among people who were once, decades ago, considered interesting.

Posted by flamingbanjo | March 20, 2008 11:20 AM
3

the answer to the question posed:

way too many.

Posted by michael strangeways | March 20, 2008 11:59 AM
4

life is fiction. writing is art.

Posted by adrian! | March 20, 2008 12:13 PM
5

and by "art" i mean "therapy."

Posted by adrian! | March 20, 2008 12:14 PM
6

I KNEW IT. And I told my friend that the Sierra Leone memoir was a lie!

Posted by SeMe | March 20, 2008 3:26 PM
7

a lot of book posts is better than a lot of posts with youtube videos in them.

Posted by kt | March 20, 2008 7:38 PM

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