John D'Agata

The majority of this book is composed of high spirited banter and a recital of the distance between D'Agata's prose and the facts. The meat of it comes in a one-two punch at the end: the issues regarding a definition of nonfiction come to a head in a conversation between the author and fact-checker that goes beyond particulars, and then Fingal ends with the only twist, in retrospect, that this text could have. I appreciated the layout, especially, which provided a pragmatic alternative to footnotes and a couple of interesting comparisons with medieval biblical manuscripts: both the formatting of original text centered in each page and the use of red ink as accent. Surely no other text is as relevant in comparison when considering our cultural understanding of truth.… (more)

D'Agata's structure is the strong point of this book, not the dubious "nonfiction" categorization or the prose, as others have suggested. The way he finds unlikely ways to weave back and forth between his different topics, linking words, time spans, and themes allows his book a certain kind of grace that seems innovative. I agree with Bill Gifford's review in the Washington Post that D'Agata's prose style itself is rather pompously self-aware: "He makes you think, "Wow, look at that Writer, writing," rather than thinking about whatever it is he wants you to think about. There are lists that go on for pages, and an awful lot of one-sentence paragraphs."
Of note: the conflicts on his purposeful obscuring of facts, despite his awareness of his own inaccuracy, in the name of "art." Will be reading "Lifespan of a Fact" at some point to follow up on this.… (more)