No. 225: BERNARD SHAWON & PERCIVAL EVERETT / An unbelievably true story about a risible con job. Mimesis or simply coincidence, it took four decades to roll out.

Cord Jefferson's American Fiction won an Oscar. They give no prizes for minor pseudo-journalistic deceptions like mine. There has to be a "victim" for it be categorized as a fraud, right?

ONE of my favourite movies of last year was American Fiction, which was nominated for the Best Picture at the Academy Awards and landed director Cord Jefferson the Oscar for best adapted screenplay. No, I didn’t read the novel first—Erasure by Percival Everett was published more than 20 years ago, and I had missed it completely. I did track it down after watching American Fiction and have been binge-reading the author’s works ever since. For what it’s worth, Everett’s James, a re-imagining of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, is the best book I’ve read this year.