Dave is one of the best at craftily and openly blurring the lines. But a non-fiction novel is not a memoir (there’s that label thing again), or at least a good one won’t act like it, and what Eggers has done so well in that book is climb inside Achak Deng’s head to tell his story. I’d imagine the autobiographical nod would be similar to an actor that is naturally subsumed by his or her character in part, due to the intimate similarities in history, experience and personality type.
Often the best art is facilitated by its sharing of psychosocial blood. That’s the challenge with young American writers today—too many of them are being bled of their savings by “low-resident” MFA programs instead of hoping tramp steamers and living out of their bus in Oaxaca. Getting your ass kicked will give you something to paint. Eggers, for his part, has always “earned” his stories. I know the James Frey fabrication issue has been done to death but your statement brought him to mind, not only because if he had such a statement he might not have run into such problems. What is your take on memoirists who exaggerate or fabricate?
Frey would likely be excused, as you note, if he had framed his story as a melding of fact and fiction. But then he wouldn’t have been able to sell it either. What mainstream readers want (and publishers know) is the fantastical represented as real. It takes on the form of pseudo-myth. And in a dearth of authentic heroes, popular culture has allowed and contributed to the manufacturing of hero-types. The public (aided by Oprah) projected into Frey’s text because they want to see people screw up and then make good. While Frey clearly crossed the line he is not the first nor the last. Memoirs by default are subconscious efforts to meld the ideal ego with the ego ideal. Most memoirists don’t even know when they’re embellishing. The more important question might be how do we, as a society hungry for great tales of survivorship, continue to blind ourselves to what heroism is left hiding in the rents and seams of our world? How can we feel heroic while making dinner for a sick friend? How do we look beyond the hegemonic message that states, “based on a real story” and realize the translation is that it’s more than 50% fabricated?
Also, what is the biggest misconception about you?
I have no idea. But I always get a laugh when I hear for the 900th time, “You look bigger on TV.” I’m sure there’s some metaphorical reference there but by now it’s just funny. Everybody looks bigger on the little screen, even Tom Cruise at 5’ 5”.
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