Book Notices | True Story by Michael Finkel

Michael Finkel, True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa

Amazon   Shortly after Michael Finkel was fired by the New York Times for journalistic misbehavior, the story of a lifetime fell in his lap. A man named Chris Longo was in police custody, suspected of having killed his wife and three children in Oregon, after which he fled to Mexico and lived briefly under an assumed name: He pretended to be New York Times reporter Michael Finkel. The real Finkel tells the story of his ensuing relationship with Longo. The pair corresponded in a series of long letters, Finkel looking for a story and Longo ostensibly baring his soul, slowly doling out an account that would, Finkel hoped, culminate in the truth about what happened in Oregon. True Story discusses their relationship and Longo's trial in 2003. Wrapped around that are details about the piece (on slavery in cocoa plantations in the Ivory Coast) that ended Finkel's career at the Times. The book's subtitle hits the nail on the head: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa. The title of the book, too, is perfectly apt given the two principals' unfortunate relationship with the truth and the book's attempt, nonetheless, to uncover it. Very interesting book. It was made into a movie in 2015 (starring James Franco and Jonah Hill), which I feel I must now watch.