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Lynne Truss's confessions and fiction

edited February 2007 in - Reading

Comments

  • Just came across this interesting piece on the BBC.
    It has to do with writing about places you've never been and people and things that were never there in fiction.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6339747.stm
  • Thank you for that; interesting and amusing! 

    A quote from the article: "Personally, I'm always disappointed to learn that the story of a novel is literally true, or a character based on a real person. I feel the thing is thereby diminished." I had that experience with Erica Jong's novels. I completely went off her when I realised that all the main characters were thinly disguised versions of herself and her various husbands.
  • Thanks for recommending that website, Carol. The responses to Lynne Truss's comments are also interesting - and very varied!
  • It reminded me of an afternoon tv programme I was half listening to  last year, about Damielle Steele. Many of her stories appeared to be thinly disguised events from her life.
    But I agree the comments from readers and writers was interesting.
  • I've just added this comment:

    "When Arnold Bennett wrote his famous novel 'The Old Wives' Tale', he included an account of every day life during the 1870/71 siege of Paris (the Franco-Prussian War). So incredibly detailed was his description, that many readers assumed he'd witnessed the events at first hand. Born in 1867, however, Bennett in 1870 was still in rompers in the family home near Stoke-on-Trent."

    Might not be included of course. They don't print every comment.
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