Chekhov's Mistress
Gourevitch/Delbanco on Lopate
[UPDATED: SEE BELOW]
The Paris Review’s Philip Gourevitch is guest hosting for the excellent Leonard Lopate on WYNC today. Among his guests is Andrew Delbanco, author of Melville: His World and Work.
I caught some of this in the car and it was a great discussion, so I’m hoping to catch the rest on podcast. [LINK]
[LINK TO MP3]
Gourevitch was back today with, among others, a look at the Frey fiasco. The show was all callers (at least what I heard – as usual I get out of the car and missed much of it) who gave some interesting comments. One, a former addict supporting Frey because of the emotional support (I think Oprah would call that emotional truth or something) he got from the book. Another, an editor who really liked the book (see James Marcus’s post on the quality of the writing) but was angry about the lies. She made some interesting points about the difference between a paper or magazine’s fact-checking and a publisher’s legal vetting – in short, it’s mostly up to the author to have good faith. She was disheartened by Oprah’s stance.
That show started with a nice zinger: Frey on the Lopate show (p.o. pre-Oprah) talking about his honesty and integrity and how he shopped the book as fiction but the editors wanted to make it a memoir for marketing purposes, which so-called fact was refuted by others. It’s always sporting to let people be their own worst enemy.
I doubt any of that is new, but other than highlighting a few posts by others at MetaxuCafé I haven’t followed it too closely. The interesting thing though, is the conversations this incident has sparked about honesty in the public sphere. A good subject, I believe.
I imagine if you follow the links above, you will find the podcasts of today’s show.
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About this Post
- Posted by: Bud Parr
- Date: January 18, 2006
- Filed Under:
Wise Men Fish Here: Literature
- Comments:0
- Links to this Post: Technorati
