QUILLBLOG

Just the facts

Novelist Kenneth J. Harvey does his own take on the James Frey controversy in a satirical piece on the website for The Times. Working from the premise that if Frey can justify the non-fiction label attached to his largely fictional memoir by claiming that the majority of what he wrote was true, Harvey questions whether the latest Man Booker Prize winner, John Banville’s novel The Sea, can actually be called fiction. After all, the novel takes place in Ireland, a real country. Harvey also discovers that there are at least four people in Ireland named Max Morden, the name of the novel’s protagonist. This leads Harvey to conclude that “a comprehensive investigation is in order. If the sanctioned percentage of fact (to be determined by James Frey) exceeds the appropriate percentage of fiction, I suggest that it would be prudent for the Booker committee to strip Banville of his award.”

Related links:
Read Kenneth J. Harvey’s piece in The Times

Comments are closed.