January 15, 2016: Do you like your subject?
I have heard authors interviewed who have just completed a biography, as to whether they liked their subject. I have thought that an odd question, given that a good biography should be impartially based on facts – a retelling, as it were – of actual events.
So, having completed a biography where – thankfully – lots of great details came to light during research, I had to ask the same question of myself: Did I like my subject? Not at first, I had to admit, though he was intriguing, his family background fascinating, and his own travails were riveting. He did not initially appear to have much moral fibre, which led him into great difficulties. Of course, this, in itself, can be the basis of a great story.
But tracking someone over the course of a lifetime gives you an understanding of their life, their interactions, and their development. Their life unfolds, their experiences broaden, and their reactions are revealed. And knowing a man as closely as it is possible to know him, after the fact, allows you to answer that question. Yes, I liked him.