...is that real-life men often let you down:

Scores of New Orleanians were unjustly imprisoned when the criminal justice system collapsed after Hurricane Katrina, but Abdulrahman Zeitoun's wrongful arrest was undoubtedly one of the most celebrated. His post-Katrina plight was the focus of the 2009 book "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers, one of the most well-received chronicles of the storm.

On Monday, Zeitoun again wore a jail uniform as he sat on a courtroom bench surrounded by other inmates. But this time, Zeitoun's appearance at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court reflected the profoundly troubling turn his life has taken of late, which has seen him arrested twice on charges of assaulting his ex-wife. The Zeitouns' loving relationship formed the backbone of Eggers' story.

It's a horrible story—Zeitoun's ex-wife's account of the abuse is painful to read. I don't think that any of this should discredit Zeitoun—it's still a powerful book, and maybe Eggers's best—but I do think that Eggers may have to address this in future editions of the book. He did this once before, in the paperback edition of Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which included a huge afterword addressing the response to the book and what happened next. And I hope this incident doesn't scare anyone off from writing a non-fiction novel about a real-life person. It's easy to write a true crime account of someone who does something terrible, but it's much harder to write about the good in people.