The Fabulist

[therealjae]

I don't remember exactly when I started maniacally devouring news stories about disgraced former journalist Stephen Glass, but I'm pretty sure it must have been in the summer of 2000. I got my hands on a copy of the Vanity Fair article that would later serve as the basis for the film "Shattered Glass," I read everything I could find about him on

Comments

[tangleofthorns]

Man. You should write book reviews more often.

Do you really think his ability to fool all of the people some of the time with his characters and creations dried up because of the removal of deadlines and pressure? Is it just the lack of improvisational conditions? Because that's an interesting thought. I'll go away and think about it some more now.

[dafnagreer]

Hmm... that's an interesting take -- I didn't think that's what Jae was saying, but maybe I'm misreading her (wouldn't be the first time) -- I thought she was saying it wasn't the removal of deadlines and pressure but the removal of the thrill of the con.

[therealjae]

Yep, that's my suspicion, and the root of my disappointment.

-J

[therealjae]

You should write book reviews more often.

I don't have this much to say about most books. :-)

because of the removal of deadlines and pressure? Is it just the lack of improvisational conditions?

My suspicion is that it's not the former, but more the latter. And possibly also, as Dafna says, the removal of the thrill of the con. The tone of The Fabulist reeks with contempt for every character, to the extent that it's hard for me not to think that Glass got some high out of putting one over on people he thought so little of. I might be wrong, but I don't think so, and that's a grave disappointment to me.

-J

[supergee]

Many skills go into good fiction. Perhaps Glass needed a novelizer.

[dafnagreer]

After everything he's done, being a bad storyteller turns out to be the one thing I can't forgive him for.

Word. Cause like, taken to an extreme, communism may not have been a great idea, but at least Lenin could write.

[pene]

though I don't think that his not being an immediately talented "novel"ist means he's any more or less a con. It could be that what you say about the joy of and need for fabrication is true but doesn't require that he be gifted at it.

but then the trouble is that if he's untalented and just charming? or lucky? then I guess his value in the universe and therefore the tragedy in the story is harder to find.

I wonder if I would like the book more than you. plot and character are largely unimportant to me *g*

[therealjae]

I actually don't think you would like it, though probably for slightly different reasons than I didn't. If you do find yourself curious enough to read it, though, do let me know what your own impressions are, because I wonder!

-J

[rivka]

Wow, what a review. I'm sorry Glass disappointed you so, but glad to have the opportunity to read this piece of analysis.