Question 6- Fiction vs. Nonfiction

I feel like if a book is nonfiction, it is more meaningful. Having the author personally experience the piece gives him more credibility and will impact me as a reader more. If I am reading about say a war book, I would be more impressed if the author was actually there rather than making it up. However, obviously, I feel like that anyone would feel this way- if the person has actually experienced the particular events, it makes it more meaningful.

Take for example, the novel A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. It was supposed to be his memoir about his tribulations with drugs and alcohol and was a very moving book about him overcoming his addiction. After Oprah praised him and put his book on her “Book Club,” it caused controversy when it turned out that he emphasized that most of his life story. I had read the book before the truth was divulged, and I must say that it changed my opinion of the book. Before, I was really impressed with his story and the hardships that he overcame. However, once I found out that it was a farce, it really changed my opinion about the book. What I had once admired about him I now was disgusted.

Going back to Invisible Man and Confessions, I feel like they would be taken in a completely different context. If Confessions was a work of fiction, I would honestly probably be more excited to read it. I don’t know why, but no matter what the subject matter is, I always prefer fiction to nonfiction, which yes, completely contradicts what I said before that nonfictional memoirs are more inspiring than fictional stories. However, as contradictory as this sounds, I feel like if Invisible Man was actually a memoir, I would like it less. Because of the plotline of the story so far, I feel like I would be skeptical if it was a true-life memoir. So far in the book, he has taken a Trustee to a man who has impregnated both his wife and sister at similar times, been to a bar with mentally insane World War I veterans, and been expelled from his college. I could not imagine that ever happening to a person in real life.