The Truthful Distortions of ‘The MANIAC’
“What do you like to read?” . “I like a very specific kind of book,” the writer answers, “one that gathers information, beauty, and horror.” With his debut novel, Chilean author wrote exactly the kind of book he likes to read., translated by , pieces together dream-like stories about some of the most haunting scientific discoveries of the 20 century, from ’s to the development of the used in Nazi extermination camps. Some reviewers of the novel of Labatut’s fusion of biographical detail with fictional storytelling to foreground the beauty and horror wrought by the human mind over the past few centuries. In the wake of and , both major influences on Labatut’s writing, that kind of critical dismay seems puzzling. When Sebald about the pollination of the historical with the fictional that defines his work, he responded: “You adulterate the truth as you try to write it. There isn’t that pretense that you try to arrive at the literal truth. And the only consolation when you confess to this flaw is that you are seeking to arrive at the highest truth.”, Labatut gives an echoing response to a similar question: “You have to be willing to pervert and, , , , , and of course Sebald and Bolaño—all practiced this kind of distortion of factual reality to give voice to what “the literal truth” alone cannot tell us.
