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By Richard Fernandez

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Columbia days

September 13, 2008 - 4:02 pm - by Richard Fernandez
programmer
2008-09-14 12:37:13

www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/us/politics/18memoirs.html?pagewanted=1

Warning: long article, but there is an interesting observation I have clipped below:

His half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, said he eventually retreated to Bali for several months with his wife, Michelle, “to find a peaceful sanctuary where there were no phones.” He showed drafts to a few close relatives including his grandmother, of whom Ms. Soetoro-Ng said, “It probably made her a little nervous, having the family written about, just because you don’t do that in Kansas.”

In the introduction, Mr. Obama acknowledged his use of pseudonyms, composite characters, approximated dialogue and events out of chronological order. He was writing at a time well before a recent series of publishing scandals involving fabrication in memoirs. “He was trying to be careful of people’s feelings,” said Deborah Baker, the editor on the first paperback edition of the book. “The fact is, it all had a sort of larger truth going on that you couldn’t make up.”

Sound familiar?