When Author and Fact-Checker Argue

Ever wonder how journalistic works are vetted for the accuracy of their information? Publishers employ fact-checkers to comb through an essay or book to verify its truthfulness. As you might guess, some authors don't enjoy an outside person doubting their research. Lifespan of a Fact gives us a unique window into the combative, evocative relationship between John D'Agata and his assigned fact-checker, Jim Fingal.

The original essay is surrounded by the fact-checker's findings. In black are the sections he has found truthful and the red text are the passages where he has found errors, along with the author's rebuttals.

a typical page from the book

Jim Fingal, an intern at Believer magazine, is asked to fact check John D'Agata's fifteen page essay (already rejected by Harpers) about the suicide of a teen from Las Vegas. What follows is a long drawn out relationship of petty bickering and an attempt to decipher the nature of the essay and non-fiction writing.

D'Agata, then a professor of writing at the University of Iowa contends that the essay is an art form where the feeling of the story matters more than the raw facts. He employs his beliefs by altering small truths (the name of a slot-machine, the number of seconds the teen fell) to create a more aesthetically pleasing narrative. Jim Fingal meticulously researches and reports the inconsistencies of each of D'Agata's words, sometimes devoting an entire book page to a single paragraph.



To Fingal, the truth is the truth and D'Agata is abusing his credibility as a journalist by not reporting the absolute facts that the reader expects.

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