The Queen of Sheba has no clothes.

[libertango]

David Brooks (sometimes known by his more formal title, the Queen of Sheba) appears to have something of a truth problem.

akirlu sent me a pointer to an article from Philadelphia Magazine titled, "Boo-Boos In Paradise". The author, Sasha Issenberg, apparently decided to do some fact checking throughout Brooks' oeuvre -- Bobos In Paradise (natch), Brooks' article on Red and Blue America from the Atlantic, and Brooks' article on Patio Man from the Weekly Standard.

Turns out most of the charming, quaint, piercing examples Brooks brings to his prose are... well, made up.

Issenberg decided to call Brooks, "to see if I was misreading his work." Issenberg laid out the numerous examples of where Brooks gets things flat out wrong.

Brooks' reaction?

"He accused me of being "too pedantic," of "taking all of this too literally," of "taking a joke and distorting it." "That's totally unethical," he said."

So... I guess we can look forward to Brooks insisting to his publishers, book sellers, or both, that they file him in either Humor or Fiction. Rather than Non-Fiction, which is where he's traditionally been filed.

I wouldn't hold my breath, though.

Comments

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

Well, as you know Bob, I grew up in Red American and I have to say that I think Mr Brooks may just have picked the wrong county. I mean he was east of the Mississipi and/or north of the Mason-Dixon line. As it happens Red Lobster is one of the best restaurants in the town where my parents live and is my mother's choice for where to go for dinner on her birthday every year. Of course, an hour up the road in Tulsa you'll get much more sophisticated food, but Tulsa has a lot more money and sophistication is, in fact, one thing money can buy. It may have been overstated but some of the descriptions Mr Brooks gave sure sounded familiar as hell to me. And I do mean hell.

MKK