5/23/2023 0 Comments Finale by thomas mallon![]() ![]() One might judge such readers to be hopelessly naïve, but in their defense, it should be noted that Mallon has not seen fit to adopt any of the devices available to a fiction-writer who wishes to mark more or less clearly in what ways he or she is ringing interesting changes on what really happened. The thought does indeed bear repeating, since readers taking this book at face value might get the impression that Mallon is giving them the inside scoop about, among other things, what happened at Reykjavik, how Nixon really felt about Reagan, and the hidden story behind the Iran-Contra scandal during Reagan’s second term. ![]() But this remains a work of fiction, not history. The text contains deviations from fact that some readers will regard as unpardonable and others will deem unworthy of notice. I have operated along the always sliding scale of historical fiction. This is perhaps as good a place as any to repeat what I said in a note to a previous novel. In the Acknowledgements to Finale: A Novel of the Reagan Years, Thomas Mallon offers a disclaimer: ![]()
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