Our book club picked a book set in my hometown and the whole discussion went sideways

Last month, my group read a novel set in a small town in Oregon that's basically a stand-in for where I grew up. The author got a lot of the local details wrong, like saying the main street diner has been there since the 1940s when it actually opened in the 70s. I pointed this out, and half the group said it didn't matter for the story, but the other half got really hung up on the 'lack of research'. We spent 45 minutes just arguing about whether facts matter in fiction. Has your club ever gotten stuck on a detail that split people like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_piper2mo ago

Facts can totally ruin a story for me.

sage_moore371mo ago

I mean, how often does a fact actually ruin a whole story for you?

cameronp471mo ago

Depends on the fact for me. If it's something big that makes the whole plot fall apart, like the_piper said, then yeah it's ruined. But small stuff I can usually let slide.