Reading Nonfiction Is Always a Matter of Trust
A review of ‘Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World’s Most Notorious Diaries’ by Rick Emerson
My wife reads me a few books each year. She chooses the book, there’s no theme.
She is one of those gifted individuals capable of just putting a book down, sometimes for weeks, sometimes forever. I don’t have that skill. From the time I crack a cover, the book dominates my life until I’ve reached the end.
We read at different paces.
Our reading started out as a kind of therapy. She would read for half an hour and that would be it. I’ll admit I finished The Accidental Tourist behind her back, but other than that, I have learned to be patient. Still, I need to know how a story ends, even if it’s poorly told. Recently, I found out that she did as well, but in a different way.
We were reading The Terror, Dan Simmons historical fiction about a doomed polar expedition. Once we were about halfway through, she started annotating it for me as well. So compelled was she by the story that she did outside research to see what was true, what was plausible, and what was pure fiction (besides the monster).
I don’t open books for information, I open…
