My favorite find so far this year, by far. Fascinating, unique, and surprisingly funny.
"I couldn't put it down. I doubt you'll be able to, either.
--Serena L.
Factual Dispute: I dispute the factual value of the statements in this recommendation, and assert that these four sentences (if you can call 3 adjectives, an adverb and a conjunction a sentence) amount to subjective opinion, lies (I bet she could and did put it down...)and highly unlikely prediction (you will probably also have to put it down, though you may not want to). That being said, it's my opinion that Serena's opinions are generally well-intentioned and worthwhile, however factually vacant."
--Margaret B.
My favorite find so far this year, by far. Fascinating, unique, and surprisingly funny.
"I couldn't put it down. I doubt you'll be able to, either."
--Serena L.
"Factual Dispute: I dispute the factual value of the statements in this recommendation, and assert that these four sentences (if you can call 3 adjectives, an adverb and a conjunction a sentence) amount to subjective opinion, lies (I bet she could and did put it down...)and highly unlikely prediction (you will probably also have to put it down, though you may not want to). That being said, it's my opinion that Serena's opinions are generally well-intentioned and worthwhile, however factually vacant."
--Margaret B.
Publisher W. W. Norton & Company
Publication Date 2012-02-27
Section New Titles - Paperback / Essays / All Staff Suggestions / Archived Staff Suggestions / Margaret B. / Serena L.
Format Paperback
ISBN 9780393340730
An innovative essayist and his fact-checker do battle about the use of truth and the definition of nonfiction. How negotiable is a fact in nonfiction? In 2003, an essay by John D’Agata was rejected by the magazine that commissioned it due to factual inaccuracies. That essay—which eventually became the foundation of D’Agata’s critically acclaimed About a Mountain—was accepted by another magazine, The Believer, but not before they handed it to their own fact-checker, Jim Fingal. What resulted from that assignment was seven years of arguments, negotiations, and revisions as D’Agata and Fingal struggled to navigate the boundaries of literary nonfiction.
This book reproduces D’Agata’s essay, along with D’Agata and Fingal’s extensive correspondence. What emerges is a brilliant and eye-opening meditation on the relationship between “truth” and “accuracy” and a penetrating conversation about whether it is appropriate for a writer to substitute one for the other.
