Nothing Happened and Then It Did: A Chronicle in Fact and Fiction Book

11/22/2019 Update: If you want a book that blurs truth and fiction, just read The Things They Carried.

It's not often that a book leaves me totally dumbfounded, but that's what we've got here. The introduction does work to lay out Silverstein's thesis, but its purpose/significance/value as an exploration of the narrative form is never fully fleshed out. I've noticed other reviewers mention that the book is boring, a statement to which I'll push back and instead say that the narrative feels mostly purposeless. You don't really come to care much about Silverstein's journey, since things mostly happen to him passively. In other words, while each chapter might be interesting in its own right (and they vary by significant degrees), more often than not you'll finish them and wonder "What is going on? Why did any of that matter? What am I supposed to take away from this?" The answers to these questions are elusive, and not in a good way.

From the introduction:

"Within this chronicle, every attempt has been made to separate the fact from the fabrication. Chapters identified as [fact] can be trusted not to deviate from what happened in real life, regardless of how novel or incredible they may seem; events related in [fiction chapters] are wholly invented. I do not wish to deceive by passing off fiction as fact, as so many have done, only to permit the real to mingle with the imagined, as it does in the deserted labyrinth of the mind."

I (obviously) have yet to determine what it means for a text to somehow both blend and separate fact and fiction. The fact that they are nearly indistinguishable must mean something. Should I come to any grand realization in future frustrated ponderings, I'll be sure to update here. For now, I'll call NHaTID an experiment with a foggy hypothesis and an even murkier result.