This week’s question, from Booking Through Thursday:
Given the choice, which do you prefer? Real history? Or historical fiction? (Assume, for the purposes of this discussion that they are equally well-written and engaging.)
I’m a nonfiction history reader through and through.
I confess I have an uneasy relationship with historical fiction, which just gets worse, the further back in history the book is set.
Not exactly sure why this is, but it may be that I’m not sure if the history stuff is done correctly in historical fiction, and I am not so ready to suspend disbelief with historical fiction as I am with science fiction, fantasy, time travel, ghost stories, etc.
Also, life was hard back then, and in historical fiction, that really comes through. Those unfortunate souls did not have indoor plumbing! Or furnaces, or proper ovens, or easy access to chocolate, or free public libraries. I often think I would have just withered away from the agonies of it all.
When I’m reading fiction, I’m living in the characters’ world. With historical fiction, I don’t want to live there. I want to live here, with my hot cup of coffee, thermostat, piles of books, hot running water, Internet, and food I didn’t have to strangle with my bare hands. Historical fiction reminds me that I am nothing but one big wimp, and who needs that?
And on that happy note, I’ll wish you a very merry Christmas.
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