Introduction to Nonfiction
B
oth of the following passages deal with
baseball great Roberto Clemente. How do
they differ?
“I am surprised. More than surprised. You
are Roberto Clemente, the baseball player?”
“Of course.”
“You were lost at sea?”
“Until now.”
“There’s something not quite right.”
“Like what?” says Clemente.
“Like what year do you think this is?”
“When we took off it was 1972, but New
Year’s Eve. We crashed in the ocean. It must be
January fifth or sixth, maybe even the seventh,
1973.”
— W. P. KINSELLA,
“Searching for January”
“It was almost midnight,” recalls Rudy
Hernandez, a former teammate of Roberto’s.
“We were having this party in my
restaurant, and somebody turned on the radio
and the announcer was saying that Roberto’s
plane was feared missing. And then, because
my place is on the beach, we saw these giant
floodlights crisscrossing the waves, and we
heard the sound of the helicopters and the
little search planes.”
—JERRY IZENBERG,
A Bittersweet Memoir
Roberto Clemente, outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates, in 1964.
Fiction and Nonfiction
These two passages differ in several ways, including
writing style. But one very important difference is
that Kinsella’s re-creation of Clemente in this
passage is imaginary, and Izenberg’s is an attempt
to describe actual events. To put it another way,
Kinsella’s short story is fiction, and Izenberg’s
biography is nonfiction.
Fiction is often highly realistic. Kinsella is known for
his extensive kno