Genius lost in fiction
IF YOU know little or nothing about Herman Melville, then you may well enjoy Jay Parini’s fictionalised biography. Subtitled ‘The tumultuous life and fierce loves of one of the world’s greatest writers’, his fictional account of the author of Moby Dick is an uneasy compromise between fact and fiction. The more you know about Melville and the more you admire his work, the less you will like Parini’s version of his life.
Parini wants to have it all: to be factually convincing and also free to invent whatever suits his purpose. He creates a monologue for Melville’s wife, Lizzie, which works well enough. In alternate sections he gives a blow-by-blow documentary account of Melville’s long life. This is where problems arise: how much is Parini inventing, and how much is fact? Is he inventing a particular detail, has he made up the letter he is quoting from, or are both historical?
