Monday, January 12, 2015

Six notable fiction books that feature real-life characters

Stewart O'Nan's newest novel is West of Sunset.

One of the author's six favorite fiction books that feature real-life characters, as shared at The Week magazine:
A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley

Novel, memoir, or "autobiographical fiction," whatever fanciful embellishments Exley indulges in, his outsize love for Frank Gifford and the New York Giants is real, hilarious, and terrifying. In the book, Exley strives and fails to become the only thing worth being in America: famous. In life, the book made him famous, and he tried to live up to the character he created, a process he then chronicled in two more books.
Read about another entry on the list.

A Fan's Notes is among Laura Kipnis's six favorite books about wounded masculinity and Dan Barden's six top stories of addiction.

--Marshal Zeringue