Incorporating Nonfiction into Readers’ Advisory Services

This new journalistic style was an obvious precursor of narrative nonfiction. Applegate notes that it was a “form of writing that combines the literary devices of fiction with the journalistic techniques of nonfiction.”¹⁰ Journalists began to add creative elements, inner points of view, and fictional devices such as scenes, dialogue, and descriptive embellishment. Much of the new journalism dealt with political and social issues, indicating that the change in focus was perhaps related to the complexity of societal changes in the 1960s. As reality became stranger than fiction, journalists filled a gap, left by novelists, by going beyond simple reporting towards an attempt to make sense of current events. Talese said the goal of “new journalism” was “to seek a larger truth than is possible through mere compilation of facts.”¹¹

During this period in time, novelists such as Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, and Truman Capote began to turn toward nonfiction subject matter in works termed the “true life novel,” “faction novel,” and the “nonfiction novel.” In 1966, Capote wrote In Cold Blood, originating contemporary, book-length narrative nonfiction and the genre of True Crime in general. In an interview with Frankel, Capote said that he “got this idea of doing a really serious big work–it would be precisely like a novel, with a single difference: every word of it would be true from beginning to end.”¹² Other notable narrative nonfiction titles written in the 1960s and 1970s include Jessica Mitford’s The American Way of Death, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward’s All the President’s Men, and Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff .

In the 1980s, questions were asked about the differences between factual and fictional narratives and whether those lines were becoming obscured. The use of composite characters and reconstructed dialogue that had not been recorded were particularly questionable techniques, creating debate over if and when the new nonfiction entered the realm of “faction,” a term coined by Alex Haley, describing the gray zone between fact and imagination. As a result, the provocative, dramatic nonfiction that was produced through the 1980s moved from a first-person journalistic perspective to straight narrative nonfiction such as, Tracy Kidder’s works, The Soul of a New Machine and House or the best-selling Brief History of Time by Stephen W. Hawking. Also in the 1980s, the New York Times Book Review separated its nonfiction paperback bestseller lists into two lists: “Advice, How-to, and Miscellaneous” and general “Nonfiction,” making room for narrative nonfiction titles and thereby increasing recognition and sales.

In the 1990s, narrative nonfiction really took off and became a hugely successful publishing trend. Two titles that met with critical and popular success began a gold rush for narrative nonfiction titles. John Berendt’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil sold more than 2.5 million copies, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1995, and spent an unprecedented five years on the New York Times bestseller list, a feat previously unheard of for any fiction or nonfiction title. In 1994, magazine writer Dava Sobel was contracted by Walker publisher George Gibson to turn a magazine article about the man who invented the chronometer into a book. The result was Longitude, published in 1995, which spent eighteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and began the popularity of a new history subgenre most often called the Microhistory. The 1990s also saw resurgence in popularity of narrative nonfiction genres of memoir and essays, often referred to as “creative nonfiction” in these genres. Confessional or inspirational memoirs such as Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt), The Liar’s Club (Mary Karr), and Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom) spawned a wide readership, initiating what has been termed the “self-revelation industry,” a hot subgenre in narrative nonfiction. Other benchmark titles from the late 1990s and early 2000s include The Professor and the Madman (Simon Winchester), Black Hawk Down (Mark Bowden), Into Thin Air (Jon Krakauer), Seabiscuit (Laura Hillenbrand), Fast Food Nation (Eric Schlosser), and Devil in the White City (Erik Larson).

The continuing popularity of titles such as these has proven to publishers that narrative nonfiction is not an ephemeral fad and that it sells. As a result, nonfiction titles are now enjoying big print runs, publicity campaigns, and critical acclaim. The increasing readership of narrative nonfiction has lead to the pronouncement by William Zinsser, former editor of the Book of the Month club, that nonfiction is “the new American literature.”¹³ An interesting note on the circularity of movements: increasingly we are seeing novelists, riding on the wave of nonfiction’s present “golden age,” writing fiction that reads like the new nonfiction, bringing us full circle to the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century novelists who based their novels on actual events. Examples include Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang, Claire Clarke’s Victorian murder mystery The Great Stink, and The Known World by Edward P. Jones. The popularity of this “new American literature” necessitates the same kind of attention and techniques that the Readers’ Advisory community has given to genre fiction. Categorization of narrative nonfiction by genres and subgenres and delineation of the characteristics and appeals of narrative nonfiction are basic requirements for providing quality readers’ advisory services.

Categorization by Genre and Subgenre

The first step in providing nonfiction readers’ advisory, one that is currently being addressed, is identifying and defining the popular characteristics of the various nonfiction genres and subgenres. Grouping narrative nonfiction books implies that one can know what to expect from a book in a particular genre, and will assist in the process of finding similar titles. As Saricks writes, “We’re going to have to figure out what the most useful categories of nonfiction are and which authors exemplify them.”¹⁴ In looking at a variety of genre breakdowns, including Saricks’s popular nonfiction list, Novak’s and Rubie’s lists, and various nonfiction Web sites, many of the genres overlap, while others are specific to the author.¹⁵ The following genres appear to be commonly listed, noted with varying names:

• Biography/Autobiography, Memoirs, Diaries
• Essays/Short True Stories/Reflections
• Humor
• Travelogues/Travel Books/Books with a Strong Sense of Place
• Survival/Disaster/Exploration/Adventure/Man against Nature
• Animal/Natural History/Nature Writing
• Science/Technology and Inventions
• Medicine/True Medical Accounts/Medicine and Psychology
• Overcoming Adversity/Self-Help/Inspirational
• Business/Personal Finance
• Life Style/Popular Culture/Entertainment
• Religion
• Sports
• True Crime
• History/Microhistory/Military
• Contemporary Issues/Journalistic Reportage/ Exposés/Current Affairs/Politics

One of the difficulties in the categorization process is that many narrative nonfiction books are hybrids. For instance, Adventure titles often combine elements of Travel writing, Memoir, Man against Nature, and Overcoming Adversity genres. Some see Military books, often hybrids of history and biography, as a genre of its own while others regard it as a subset of history. Microhistory, a type of history very narrow in subject matter but comprehensive and multidisciplinary in coverage is currently an extremely popular type of narrative nonfiction that supplies a good example of the challenges of categorizing nonfiction genres. A Microhistory may be a subgenre of History or a genre in its own right. The popularity and therefore publication output of Microhistories has been prolific enough to divide it into subgenres of its own, including possibilities such as “concept histories,” which illustrate the story of an idea, “material histories” or “case studies,” which track an arcane object, or “slices of history,” which offer accounts of discrete historical events.

Another example of the challenge of defining subgenres can be seen with three differing models of categorizing True Crime. The first model is from www.bloodpage.com, a Web site that divides true crime into sixteen subgenres, including Serial Killers, Organized Crime, and Historical Crime. The second is more manageable, from a handout at a readers’ advisory workshop, divided into eleven subgenres with titles such as “Bad Boys, Bad Boys,” “All in the Family,” and “Mind Probe.”¹⁶ Or perhaps a simpler, more useful approach is dividing it into two subgenres as offered by Charles Spicer, editor of St. Martin’s Press True Crime Library series: Gut Stories–those that affect readers on a primal level, and Glamour Stories–those set in the world of the rich and famous.¹⁷

The nonfiction readers’ advisory program at the 2005 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Chicago included a categorization developed by Reference and User Services Association (RUSA)/CODES Readers’ Advisory Committee identifying fifteen genres of narrative nonfiction and annotating the benchmark titles in each genre (www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaourassoc/rusasections/codes/codessection/ codescomm/codesreadadv/readersadvisory.htm). In addition, the Genreflecting Web site, www.genreflecting.com, a useful readers’ advisory tool that divides works of fiction by genre, has a “Recreational Nonfiction” site under construction.

Characteristics and Appeal

As nonfiction categories become defined, specific characteristics for individual genres and subgenres will be assigned. What follows are some general characteristics of the narrative nonfiction style. Lounsberry lists four that are a useful start. Narrative nonfiction must have: Documentable Subject Matter, Exhaustive Research, the Scene, and Fine Writing.¹⁸ Two additional characteristics are Style, which includes Fine Writing and Theme.

1. Documentable Subject Matter: Narrative nonfiction must be based on fact; it is not invented or from the realm of the imagination. It must be about such things as actual people, events, social issues, institutions, or natural phenomenon. All material must be documentable and not from the author’s imagination. Learning about things that really happened is an important appeal element for narrative nonfiction readers.
2. Exhaustive research: Narrative Nonfiction requires the authors to have immersed themselves in their subject matter; to thoroughly accumulate detail, accurately research setting, carefully interview all the principles in order to reconstruct events, and dialogue correctly (both spoken and interior monologue). Eichenwald writes, “every fact–from the weather conditions, to the color of the wallpaper, to the types of meals eaten by the characters–has to come from somewhere.”¹⁹ Created dialogue or quotes and composite characters are reasons for readers to reject a work of narrative nonfiction. Verifiable references and authenticity are critical both to the integrity of the narrative and to establish trust with the reader.
3. The Scene: This characteristic encompasses the storytelling aspect: scenes supply strong narrative drive, “an arc that builds to a climax.”²⁰ Fiction techniques such as strong construction of scenes and realistic dialogue, well-drawn characterizations, and point-of-view must be present to carry the narrative, relaying the facts in the form of a compelling story and providing drama and depth to draw the reader in. Rubie describes the application of narrative to nonfiction in an interesting way: “Truth becomes refracted, like a light through a prism, and becomes something other, although still the truth.”²¹
4. Style: Style refers to the quality of the writing. Narrative nonfiction has a literary prose style that goes beyond the functional writing of informational nonfiction. It also refers to voice, an element of style that provides subtext and meaning. Possible tones include comic, solemn, ironic, or optimistic, each eliciting a variety of potential reader responses. Author’s voice layers a personal, emotional quality onto a factual account. The title of a 1966 article about the new journalism expressed this combination fittingly: “The Personal Voice and the Impersonal Eye.”²² Personal voice and literary prose are stylistic techniques that separate narrative nonfiction titles from general nonfiction. According to Anderson, “Our experience of reading contemporary nonfiction is an experience of style.”²³
5. Themes: All narrative nonfiction has themes and often the genre determines the broad range of themes dealt with. Common themes include examinations and revelations about our society today, lessons from the events of the past, showing how an event or item impacted history or society, or illustrating how people overcame challenges or succeeded in huge undertakings.

Saricks and Brown identify four elements of appeal for fiction: pacing, characterization, story line , and frame.²⁴ Pearl presents the additional element of language.²⁵ In terms of the appeals of narrative nonfiction, as Shearer writes, “the list of appeal factors of fiction identified in the readers’ advisory literature overlaps the appeal factors of nonfiction but omits many factors of importance to readers of nonfiction.”²⁶

What are some of the appeals that are unique to nonfiction? The first is that people are enjoying a good story while at the same time learning something about real events, people, or places. As Wolfe notes of literary journalism, it “enjoys an advantage so obvious, so built in, one almost forgets what a power it has: the simple fact that the reader knows all this actually happened .”²⁷ Carr writes, “Nonfiction is crafted to communicate accurate images to the reader, so that the reader might in turn craft more complex understandings of lived experiences.”²⁸ Novak also suggests the appeal of learning from other’s experiences, whether from celebrities and heroes or from the average person.²⁹ Rubie mentions that these books take an “incident and pry it apart, searching for a way to understand, in the microcosm of the story, more about the macrocosm of our world–who we are and why we do the things we do–while at the same time giving us a rattling good yarn.”³⁰

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