http://blog.booklistonline.com/2008/03/11/lies-damn-lies-and-memoirs/ Behind the Book Reviews--The Official Blog of Booklist Online Wed, 08 Oct 2008 11:14:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2008/03/11/lies-damn-lies-and-memoirs/#comment-115045 Book Blog - Likely Stories, by Keir Graff - Booklist Online » Blog Archive » Guess What? My Name Isn’t Really “Keir Graff” Tue, 01 Apr 2008 21:36:18 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2008/03/11/lies-damn-lies-and-memoirs/#comment-115045 [...] In the wake of the most recent fake-memoir scandals, many people have asked why editors don’t do a better job of fact-checking potential frauds. Well, maybe it’s because (invoking Shatner here) those editors. Don’t. In fact. Exist! [...] […] In the wake of the most recent fake-memoir scandals, many people have asked why editors don’t do a better job of fact-checking potential frauds. Well, maybe it’s because (invoking Shatner here) those editors. Don’t. In fact. Exist! […]

]]> http://blog.booklistonline.com/2008/03/11/lies-damn-lies-and-memoirs/#comment-108782 Book Blog - Likely Stories, by Keir Graff - Booklist Online » Blog Archive » The Novel: A History Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:28:42 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2008/03/11/lies-damn-lies-and-memoirs/#comment-108782 [...] It takes the New Yorker a little longer to catch up with a story, of course, but when they do, the results are usually worth reading. Referencing Margaret Seltzer, Jill Lepore (”Just the Facts, Ma’am“) examines the lies of history, the truth of fiction, and men’s and women’s preferences for each. She asks “What makes a book a history?” and “is ‘historical truth’ truer than fictional truth?” Historians and novelists are kin, in other words, but they’re more like brothers who throw food at each other than like sisters who borrow each other’s clothes. The literary genre that became known as “the novel” was born in the eighteenth century. History, the empirical sort based on archival research and practiced in universities, anyway, was born at much the same time. Its novelty is not as often remembered, though, not least because it wasn’t called “novel.” In a way, history is the anti-novel, the novel’s twin, though which is Cain and which is Abel depends on your point of view. [...] […] It takes the New Yorker a little longer to catch up with a story, of course, but when they do, the results are usually worth reading. Referencing Margaret Seltzer, Jill Lepore (”Just the Facts, Ma’am“) examines the lies of history, the truth of fiction, and men’s and women’s preferences for each. She asks “What makes a book a history?” and “is ‘historical truth’ truer than fictional truth?” Historians and novelists are kin, in other words, but they’re more like brothers who throw food at each other than like sisters who borrow each other’s clothes. The literary genre that became known as “the novel” was born in the eighteenth century. History, the empirical sort based on archival research and practiced in universities, anyway, was born at much the same time. Its novelty is not as often remembered, though, not least because it wasn’t called “novel.” In a way, history is the anti-novel, the novel’s twin, though which is Cain and which is Abel depends on your point of view. […]

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