Is there a term for a story that is assembled almost entirely from real events, even though, because of composite characters, changes in timeline, and so forth, it is not what one would call a “true story”?
For example, say I know three folks who were Hmong refugees from Laos. One of them made a harrowing escape from the country in the wake of the Vietnam War, then came to the US and lived a reasonably pedestrian life. A second person came to the US under unexceptional circumstances, but ended up having a remarkable life, becoming a highly-decorated police officer and saving several people’s lives. The third person came over as a baby and cannot remember their flight from Laos, then had a reasonably normal adult life until being pulled into a conflict back in Laos that required great courage and skill.
If I write a story where the protagonist lived the most exciting parts of each person’s story, and I was reasonably faithful to the details of each person’s experience, would there be a term (like Bildungsroman or some such) that describes this type of narrative? Or is this type of writing so ubiquitous that it does not merit a specific term?
That term refers to a true story with a veneer of fiction, like Kerouac’s On the Road. Sal Paradise IS Jack Kerouac. Neal Cassady IS Dean Moriarty. The events and characters are pretty much as they were in real life, only the names are changed. I’m talking a more substantial reimagining of reality. Everything in the story happened to somebody, but not necessarily to the same character. All the events are true stories, but the narrative as a whole isn’t what you’d call a true story or particularly close to it.
If *roman à clef *still describes the example I gave in the OP, that’s a greater stretching of the term than I am used to.
I’d still call it a roman à clef (the amount of fictionalization can vary widely), but if that doesn’t work for you, the next level after “based on a true story” is “inspired by a true story,” which requires a looser adherence to the real events.
By the way, I definitely wouldn’t use “creative nonfiction” for the example I’m thinking of, mostly because I’ve done such a number on the narrative and on the characters. Everything in the story happened, more or less, but often to different people, and often in a different order. To me, both “creative nonfiction” and “roman à clef” (or even “based on a true story”) imply that the core narrative is pretty much true. I’m thinking more of rather disparate narratives from reality put into a bricolage that really doesn’t resemble “what really happened”, but the various parts of the story have enough in common with reality to lend the story verisimilitude.
Sorry; perhaps there’s no such animal, though “Historical fiction” might work. Thanks for your brains!
