Is It OK To Write Fictional People Into Real Life?
A Literal Literary Loser Flips the Script - on Phil Donahue!
When I was a kid, the sight of Phil Donahue caused me great sadness. That’s because, when I was growing up, his eponymous daytime talk show came on right after my beloved soap operas. Which meant that if he was on, my beloved soap operas were over for the day.
Donahue came into my life in a different way when, in 1985, soon after Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev announced his policies of glasnost and perestroika, the American and his USSR counterpart, Vladimir Povzner, hosted A Citizen’s Summit. In it, residents of Leningrad and Seattle chatted via satellite hook-up about important issues of the day, including nuclear war, human rights, immigration, dissidents, and more. You can watch the whole thing below:
Last week, I asked the question: Is it acceptable to write real people into your fiction?
My upcoming novel, Go On Pretending, features Irna Phillips, the woman who invented my beloved soap opera genre, as a supporting character.
Go On Pretending also features A Citizen’s Summit. Only my Citizen’s Summit is a little different. My Citizen’s Summit includes guests Rose Janowitz, her husband, Jonas Cain, and their daughter, Emma. A preview of their conversation below:
Donahue: And that is why you chose to defect, is it not, Mr. and Mrs. Cain? Because your interracial marriage would not be recognized in the United States in 1957? This would be prior to the US Supreme Court decision of Loving v. Virginia in 1967.
Rose: It’s no concern of mine what the United States does or does not recognize. It is a concern of mine that my husband and our daughter would be treated as full-fledged human beings, with all the rights pursuant to that, and not as three-fifths of a person.
Donahue: And have you found that to be the case in the Soviet Union?
Rose: Of course! In the USSR, Jonas was able to play the great roles of Shakespeare denied to him in the US. He’s played not just Othello, but Hamlet, Richard III, Benedick, Romeo, Henry V. This was not only in the theater, you understand, but on television, too. We are given free reign to adapt American classics like Huckleberry Finn, Native Son, Up From Slavery, for a Russian-speaking, and very appreciative, audience.
Donahue: Do you agree, Mr. Cain, with your wife?
Jonas: Do you, Mr. Donahue, ever disagree with your wife?
(Studio laughter.)
But Phil Donahue isn’t the only host in my version of A Citizen’s Summit. In Go On Pretending, Donahue is joined not by Vladimir Povzner, but by one Dennis Kagan.
And who is Dennis Kagan? Well, he is sort of the anti-Vladimir Povzner.
Povzner was the French-born son of a Russian-Jewish father and a French-Catholic mother. Having grown up and attended high school in the United States, Povzner spoke fluent English. Which served him well when, after his family moved to the USSR, he became the Soviet Union’s most popular Western mouthpiece and apologist.
Vladimir Povzner absolutely believed, supported and defended his adopted country for decades. Until, one day, in what appeared to be the blink of an eye and live on TV, he suddenly no longer did.
Dennis Kagan, on the other hand, was born in the Soviet Union. Orphaned as a toddler when both of his Jewish parents are rounded up and executed as part of Josef Stalin’s Doctor’s Plot, Dennis grows up desperately brawling to survive in a brutal state children’s home. Through clever manipulation, he rises up the ranks of Soviet Central Television. Dennis absolutely believes, supports and defends his country for decades. Until, one day, in what appears to be the blink of an eye and live on TV, he… well, you’ll have to read Go On Pretending for the full story.
So Phil Donahue is real. A Citizen’s Summit is real. The Cains are fictional. Dennis Kagan is fictional.
Last week, I asked if it was OK to write real people into fiction. In Go On Pretending, Phil Donahue asks questions which I believe are pretty consistent with the questions he usually asks, as well as some which are taken verbatim from transcripts.
But what about writing fictional people into real events? It’s a bit Forrest Gump-ish.
Historical fiction writers are notorious for having their fictional characters meet real-life figures in fictional settings.
But what about when it’s real-life people in real-life settings having conversations with fictional people, like when I insert the Cains and Dennis into Phil Donahue’s show, while leaving the rest of the interactions authentic?
How do readers feel about this bit of hybrid storytelling? Let me know in the comments!
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Meanwhile, for some pure fiction - along with a bit of magical realism - my daughter’s and my reviews continue at: