farmdoc's blog post number 42

In my 25 May 2008 blog post I wrote about my Sherlockian heritage and my quasi-forensic work. I, like Holmes before me, am fascinated by the continuum of pure truth through embroidered truth across to the factitious and then the frankly fraudulent. So a fortnight ago I was figuratively salivating as I settled down to watch Forbidden Lie$, a 2007 Australian documentary featuring Norma Khouri who wrote the book Forbidden Love – about the honour killing in Jordan of her Muslim friend because she dated a Christian. Khouri pitched her story as autobiographical, but journalists exposed it as fiction concocted from a newspaper snippet. And unsurprisingly they unearthed Khouri’s past as a con artist. I asked my sweetheart Vivienne, an accomplished writer, if and how non-fiction can be altered to protect the protagonists’ privacy. She said details can be changed though the author must document what was done and why; however the narrative’s integrity must be preserved. Khouri was not a participant in her story; she had left Jordan years beforehand. Does she care? The book became a best seller, and Khouri – to quote Liberace – cried all the way to the bank. After my discussion with Vivienne, I thought I had the difference between fiction and non-fiction sorted. Then last week my good friend Annie gave me a gift – a memoir titled Farming is Fun.