"Truth is stranger than fiction" is an old adage. However, as librarians would like you to know, non fiction does not always portray the truth, and fiction isn't necessarily all made up.
Call numbers on many library books indicates they are non fiction, but you might be surprised to know that fairy tales, Shakespeare and the Bible are all in the non fiction section.
We recently had some guests at our house: a couple who had just celebrated their 20th anniversary. The conversation turned to books, as it so often does here. I shared that I had been reading Margaret Drabble's The Red Queen, a meticulously researched book on the 18th century Crown princess of Korea, Lady Hong.
It's a rollicking account of how the princess decides she must make known the story of her husband's descent into madness and her father in law's and the court's machinations.
I found I had learned a great deal about 18thcentury Korean court life by the time I had finished the book, as well as having been amused and delighted for several hours.
The celebrating husband declared that fiction was "lies and stuff that's all made up." All he'd ever read were manuals for repairs to equipment and the Bible. His wife assured me that with two children, she had no time to read.
Reading fiction, particularly the classics, is a fantastic way to learn. It concerns not just other societies, times and places, but yourself and others around you.
Dickens and Hugo are authors who involve you completely in the lives of their characters. By osmosis, you feel the richness of the times they lived in. With their voices, you hear their outrage with the societies they lived in.
Sometimes an author combines real experiences with fictional insights that cause confusion and controversy. We are unused to something being presented as reality and then finding the story has been manipulated by the author to suit his own purposes.
James Frey's A million little Pieces and Bruce Chatwin's Songlines spring to mind as works that brought condemnation upon the authors.
As W.O. Mitchell, Canadian author of Who has seen the Wind? once said "Fiction is a lot of little lies which go to make one big truth."
The line really is a thin one. So go ahead and learn from and enjoy both fiction and non-fiction.
