David Sedaris - Veracity of Nonfiction Work

Veracity of Nonfiction Work

In 2007, in an article in The New Republic, Alexander S. Heard stated that much of Sedaris's work is insufficiently factual to justify being marketed as nonfiction. Several published responses to Heard's article argued that Sedaris's readers are aware that his descriptions and stories are intentionally exaggerated and manipulated to maximize comic effect.

Subsequently, in the wake of a controversy involving Mike Daisey dramatizing and embellishing his personal experiences at Chinese factories during an excerpt from his theatrical monologue for This American Life, new attention has been paid to the veracity of Sedaris's nonfiction stories. NPR will label stories from Sedaris, such as SantaLand Diaries, as fiction, while This American Life will fact-check stories to the extent that memories and long-ago conversations can be checked. The New Yorker already subjects nonfiction stories written for that magazine to its comprehensive fact-checking regime.