I recently finished reading True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa, a book by Michael Finkel, who was fired from the NYT Magazine for falsifying a story. It’s both his memoir of the actions that lead to his dismissal and the story of a man named Longo who killed his family.
When Longo fled to Mexico after terminating his family, he took the persona of Michael Finkel, reporter. He’d read some of Finkels work and just started saying he was Michael. The FBI wasn’t amused or fooled. He was captured and returned to the States.
The real, unemployed Finkel was staying incommunicado at his home in Bozeman, contemplating why he decided to falsify the story. On the night before the Times was going to go with the story of his firing, his phone rang and it was a Portland Oregonian reporter asking what his connection was with Longo. Finkel had never heard of Longo, but eventually they began a lengthy correspondence.
While, as a journalist, I dislike the liberties Finkel took with his reporting and hope he has discarded this practice, he has written a fine book. A good example of narrative nonfiction.
I think the best way I can define narrative nonfiction is character-driven nonfiction. The author lets the reader see into the minds of the characters as well as letting us see their actions. Along the way, the reader learns of the issues at hand. It makes for entertaining learning. Other great examples of narrative nonfiction are The Perfect Storm, Black Hawk Down, and Indecent Exposure.
At Quill Driver Books, we publish Peter Rubie’s book on how to write narrative nonfiction: The Elements of Narrative Nonfiction. Hmmmm, we were really inventive when we titled that one!
Word for the day: tomicide. The destruction of books.