LA Review of Books debuts on KCRW

Tom Lutz, the founder and editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books, is a new contributor during "All Things Considered" at KCRW. He debuted Monday, talking with interviewer Lisa Napoli. Lutz tells me the site is planning a big relaunch next month.

Today the review is considering the John D’Agata and Jim Fingal book, "The Lifespan of a Fact," in which they argue about the meaning of facts and nonfiction. Writes Ander Monson in The Skeptical Gaze:

It’s true that both author and fact-checker are occupying and performing extreme positions, which might be what leads us to this conflagration. John resists any fact-checking challenge to his writing whatsoever, alternately angry, petulant, and lecturing in his responses. Jim uses his mandate for fact-checking not only to check on significant, operating facts but to confirm that the coroner having a conversation with John actually had a beard at the time, using his vacation time to run down increasingly dickish and esoteric details, like obscure points in the legend-shrouded history of Tae Kwan Do, surely to increasingly frustrate John as he is himself frustrated.

Previously on LA Observed:
LA Review of Books gets $25,000 from Amazon