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BOOK REVIEW

‘The Lifespan of a Fact’ by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal

By John Wilwol

 |  Globe Correspondent  

  March 06, 2012

“The Lifespan of a Fact’’ records the back and forth between author John D’Agata and fact-checker Jim Fingal over the veracity of D’Agata’s account of the Las Vegas suicide of a teenager. The debate here is smart, fierce, and entirely authentic. At issue is the nature of fact in nonfiction. Specifically, to what degree is it acceptable for a nonfiction writer to alter the facts of a story in an effort to make it more compelling? “Well, zero,’’ you say. “Write a novel if you want to mess with reality.’’ But D’Agata doesn’t see things that way.

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