Fiction vs. Nonfiction

Both Augustine's Confessions and Invisible Man could be works of the opposite genre, either Confessions could be fiction, and Invisible Man could be nonfiction.

In all seriousness, I would have enjoyed Confessions a huge amount more if it were a piece of fiction. An enormous amount of the book seemed ridiculous to me. Not the religious messages, per se, but the way he presented his views. I mean, whining for a whole chapter about stealing pears? That could almost be viewed as a parody if it were fiction. If the work were fiction, it would have been simple to remove myself from it and understand the concepts better. As it is, I have trouble relating to the book because his behavior in it is so far removed from my own. So really, Confessions would have been more effective if it were fiction as opposed to an autobiographical work.

As to Invisible Man, it most definitely could be a piece of nonfiction. I'm not sure if I would enjoy it any more, however. Those kind of stories about our country's not so illustrious past sadden me. However, the harrowing tales of injustice in racist America shown in Invisible Man could definitely be true stories; I have heard much, much worse things come out of the racially charged history of America. So, with a believable story and a very well developed character Invisible Man could very easily be nonfiction. Of course, nonfiction would include the name of the main character, which Invisible Man lacks.