Ben Mezrich defends his approach to nonfiction writing - The Boston Globe

I agree with the reviews – it’s a stretch to classify this book as nonfiction – but it’s still an entertaining read and perspective on the creation of Facebook. For more real-world insights on start-ups, I recommend Founders at Work instead.

For some, Mezrich’s style is an unfortunate symptom of our culture’s ever-increasing “truthiness,’’ Stephen Colbert’s satirical word for versions of truth that disregard fact. Truthiness thrives in the new age of the Web, where the delineation between fact and fiction is unclear, says Douglas Brinkley, an author and historian at Rice University. “People rely on Wikipedia, and a lot of it is wrong. But because there it is on the Internet, they assume it’s right. Rumor gets printed as fact. We may have lost our critical facility as a nation.’’

Ben Mezrich defends his approach to nonfiction writing - The Boston Globe