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jr3083
Sep 13, 2018jr3083 rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
This book is a wry, knowing riff on the act of writing and the literary imagination. It is written in the form of a memoir penned by the writer Kif Kehlmann who was employed to ghost-write the memoir of a con-man Siegfried Heidl. ... If Siegfried Heidl sounds familiar, it's because he is. He is based on John Friedrich, who became the director of the National Safety Council of Australia (Victorian division) which collapsed with debts of a quarter of a billion dollars. He wrote, with Richard Flanagan (i.e. the author of this book) himself as ghost writer, Codename Iago: The Story of John Friedrich. And so, this book which appears to be a novel framed as a memoir, is probably more memoir than it appears, although it is not true. ... The real pleasure of this book was knowing its tortured relationship with 'truth', and I had a little chuckle out loud when Kif referred to his ultimately-rejected first novel about a drowning river guide, knowing full well that this is Death of a River Guide, Flanagan's debut novel now viewed as a classic. I wondered how a reader unfamiliar with Flanagan and his work would read this book. For those of us who have followed Flanagan's work, it's a little nod and wink in our direction. For my complete review, see https://residentjudge.wordpress.com/2018/09/13/first-person-by-richard-flanagan/