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...first half of the book is heartwarming, though, as Zeitoun paddles around in a canoe saving people. It was unlike any depiction of Katrina I saw on the news when it happened. The media depictions of Katrina were so skewed, and they were aided and abetted by a lot of people on the ground. Everyone painted this picture of a city divulging into utter chaos. Most of these rumors proved unfounded. Neighborhoods experienced the storm differently. The Zeitouns live in Uptown, where for most of the time it was quite peaceful; Zeitoun talks about this incredible quiet, with the only...
What Is the What was a true story marketed as fiction. Zeitoun is listed as nonfiction. Why did you make this one nonfiction, and what was the difference? I started on the book in 2006, only a year after Katrina. Very few of Zeitoun's memories had faded. We made a master calendar - when the water came up, when he was arrested, when he was transferred to the prison. For the most part we were able to independently corroborate all the dates and places and measurements. If Zeitoun said he saw a downed helicopter, I could find out online...
...only fiction or creative nonfiction is art. Do you agree? Well, my background is journalism. I don't have any creative-writing experience except for one class I took as a sophomore in college. I worked at magazines for over 10 years before I even thought of writing a book. When I teach kids at [my tutoring center] 826 Valencia, the first thing I do is I send them out to report. They sign up for a class that they think is going to be creative writing, and I send them out to interview people. I think it's very...
...been nine years since A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius came out, and you went from being unknown to being heralded as the voice of Generation X. What was it like when that book came out? It was really unnerving and it shook me up a lot. I thought only a few people would ever read it. The first print run was only 8,000 or 9,000, and the publishers really thought they'd lose money on it. I also hadn't prepared for an older audience, but people with gray hair were reading it. That was unsettling because...
...Steagall Act [that separated investment and commercial banking]. These are big reforms, but they'd give you a more stable landscape to make even more changes. Part of what I learned is that the very kinds of daily practices that created the boom in the first place - wanting to book as many deals as possible for short-term bonuses, a workplace structured so that they're knowingly not there for very long - paved the way for the bust. I talked to bankers who said, "When we do deals like this, we're probably at the top of the market." They...