http://blog.booklistonline.com/2007/04/05/news-flash-sedaris-a-poor-journalist/ Behind the Book Reviews--The Official Blog of Booklist Online Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:00:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2007/04/05/news-flash-sedaris-a-poor-journalist/#comment-105229 Book Blog - Likely Stories, by Keir Graff - Booklist Online » 2008 » March » 03 Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:36:09 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2007/04/05/news-flash-sedaris-a-poor-journalist/#comment-105229 [...] Is it more depressing when fake memoirs deal with the heavy subjects than trivial matters? Certainly. Though there are exceptions, most people aren’t as angry at an author when they learn his wacky family wasn’t quite as wacky as depicted as they are when they learn that his empathy-earning tale of woe was manufactured. [...] […] Is it more depressing when fake memoirs deal with the heavy subjects than trivial matters? Certainly. Though there are exceptions, most people aren’t as angry at an author when they learn his wacky family wasn’t quite as wacky as depicted as they are when they learn that his empathy-earning tale of woe was manufactured. […]

]]> http://blog.booklistonline.com/2007/04/05/news-flash-sedaris-a-poor-journalist/#comment-97858 Kit Barber Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:34:28 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2007/04/05/news-flash-sedaris-a-poor-journalist/#comment-97858 I know some of Sedaris' family. Having heard their version of events, and the damage he has done to them in a variety of ways, I will never again find anything Sedaris writes to be humorous. These are real people with real lives and the same last name as David, but he shares nothing else with them--especially the money he made from their lives. It is NOT non-fiction. I know some of Sedaris’ family. Having heard their version of events, and the damage he has done to them in a variety of ways, I will never again find anything Sedaris writes to be humorous. These are real people with real lives and the same last name as David, but he shares nothing else with them–especially the money he made from their lives. It is NOT non-fiction.

]]> http://blog.booklistonline.com/2007/04/05/news-flash-sedaris-a-poor-journalist/#comment-93636 Book Blog - Likely Stories, by Keir Graff - Booklist Online » Blog Archive » Fiction vs. Nonfiction Factionalism Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:08:47 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2007/04/05/news-flash-sedaris-a-poor-journalist/#comment-93636 [...] This is all to say nothing of the real-versus-fake issue facing memoir, about which enough has been said already to last us until 2009. [...] […] This is all to say nothing of the real-versus-fake issue facing memoir, about which enough has been said already to last us until 2009. […]

]]> http://blog.booklistonline.com/2007/04/05/news-flash-sedaris-a-poor-journalist/#comment-41400 Likely Stories » Blog Archive » You know what else is funny? A guy getting hit in the nuts. Thu, 12 Apr 2007 19:02:44 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2007/04/05/news-flash-sedaris-a-poor-journalist/#comment-41400 [...] On Slate (”Defenders“), Jack Shafer defends Alex Heard against all those people who are defending David Sedaris. Shafer especially takes issue with the notion that sometimes fiction makes facts funnier: Jon Carroll thinks humorists require “latitude” to make things funny, a notion I find bogus. I find stories that are absolutely true—like the time one of my neighbors, dressed up to party on Saturday night, fell into a 55-gallon drum filled with human excrement and urine—the funniest. [...] […] On Slate (”Defenders“), Jack Shafer defends Alex Heard against all those people who are defending David Sedaris. Shafer especially takes issue with the notion that sometimes fiction makes facts funnier: Jon Carroll thinks humorists require “latitude” to make things funny, a notion I find bogus. I find stories that are absolutely true—like the time one of my neighbors, dressed up to party on Saturday night, fell into a 55-gallon drum filled with human excrement and urine—the funniest. […]

]]> http://blog.booklistonline.com/2007/04/05/news-flash-sedaris-a-poor-journalist/#comment-40924 Likely Stories » Blog Archive » Sedaris Speaks Mon, 09 Apr 2007 15:35:28 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2007/04/05/news-flash-sedaris-a-poor-journalist/#comment-40924 [...] Last night at the Chicago Theater, David Sedaris showed his awareness of the fact-or-fiction controversy by beginning his performance with a disclaimer. He noted that, indeed, not all of the details in the work he would be reading were true–one name had been changed to avoid confusing listeners, and a line of dialog had been rephrased for emphasis. Other than that, he said, everything else was factual. [...] […] Last night at the Chicago Theater, David Sedaris showed his awareness of the fact-or-fiction controversy by beginning his performance with a disclaimer. He noted that, indeed, not all of the details in the work he would be reading were true–one name had been changed to avoid confusing listeners, and a line of dialog had been rephrased for emphasis. Other than that, he said, everything else was factual. […]

]]> http://blog.booklistonline.com/2007/04/05/news-flash-sedaris-a-poor-journalist/#comment-40305 Keir Fri, 06 Apr 2007 16:16:42 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2007/04/05/news-flash-sedaris-a-poor-journalist/#comment-40305 If Dave Barry can't be trusted, then I just don't know what to think anymore. What kind of a world is it when a humorist has to make stuff up in order to make us laugh? Just look around and there's plenty of factual stuff to work with: global warming, terrorism, over-zealous magazine journalists.... If Dave Barry can’t be trusted, then I just don’t know what to think anymore. What kind of a world is it when a humorist has to make stuff up in order to make us laugh? Just look around and there’s plenty of factual stuff to work with: global warming, terrorism, over-zealous magazine journalists….

]]> http://blog.booklistonline.com/2007/04/05/news-flash-sedaris-a-poor-journalist/#comment-40158 Dawn Thu, 05 Apr 2007 21:25:53 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2007/04/05/news-flash-sedaris-a-poor-journalist/#comment-40158 Gee, you don't think Dave Barry is telling lies either do you? Or that Erma Bombeck's house was actually clean? Golly, my assumptions about the truth behind humorous personal essays now lay in tatters! /sarcasm mode off Gee, you don’t think Dave Barry is telling lies either do you? Or that Erma Bombeck’s house was actually clean? Golly, my assumptions about the truth behind humorous personal essays now lay in tatters! /sarcasm mode off

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