# What real life story is better than fiction? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 25, 2016, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784 "2016-09-25T00:06:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784/1 "2016-09-25T00:06:15Z")
I just watched the People V. OJ Simpson on FX and was surprised by how much of the story in the TV series actually took place in real life. I was too young to follow the OJ case in 1995 so this show was my first detailed exposure to the case. After each episode I researched what actually happened and most of what I thought was added for TV drama actually took place in reality. I had the same experience watching the show Narcos on FX (about how the DEA took down Pablo Escobar). Blowing up a plane to kill a politician? Attacking the Supreme Court building to destroy evidence? Was there ever true story you came across that read better than a work of fiction? ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784/2 "2016-09-25T00:10:46Z")
The book _ **Unbroken** _ by Laura Hillenbrand ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784/3 "2016-09-25T00:30:11Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > The book _ **Unbroken** _ by Laura Hillenbrand Exactly why I came in here. I heard the movie wasn’t great, but the book reads like fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784/4 "2016-09-25T00:41:10Z")
The first-hand account by Bernal Diaz, a foot soldier with Cortez, of the conquest of the Aztec Empire, [_The True History of the Conquest of New Spain._](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historia_verdadera_de_la_conquista_de_la_Nueva_Espa%C3%B1a) A few hundred soldiers marched into the heart of the most warlike and bloodthirsty empire on Earth and conquered it. It it was fiction, no one would believe it could possibly have happened. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784/5 "2016-09-25T00:49:32Z")
The story of Attila Ambrus is like three movies in one. First off he tried out for a professional Hungarian hockey team never having played hockey in his life, he was absolutely horrible but got hired anyways for showing so much “heart”. He was the teams janitor/backup goalie. Surprisingly this did not pay very much so Attila started robbing banks. Before each robbery he would be seen at a nearby bar downing a shot of whisky he would also hand female bank tellers roses. He became a folk legend known as the “Whisky robber” with people actually rooting for him, because their opinion of the police was so low. For good reason actually, the level of police incompetence was straight out of the Pink Panther. The first time he was captured Attila escaped by making a rope out of bed sheets and going out a fourth floor window. One time he got away from a crime scene because two police cars crashed on their way there, the only two police cars the force had. They had to hitch rides with the media covering the robbery. Another time the police got the bank he was robbing wrong, so he actually saw them pass by as he was in the middle of robbing a bank. The lead detective on the case learned how to be a detective from watching Columbo reruns, which explains why it took about six years to finally catch him. This happened in the 90s, I believe he is free now. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784/6 "2016-09-25T01:07:51Z")
Vera Brittain’s _Testament of Youth_, her autobiography of her experiences as a nurse during WWI, and her relationships with four men, one her brother, one her fiance, and two her very close friends, plus a meeting toward the end with a woman in the British equivalent of the WACs, who was a little off-putting at first, but would become her very best friend. I read it when I was 14 and extremely impressionable. It is still one of my favorite books. It’s unbelievably tragic, and if someone invented that sort of tragedy, no one would believe it, but it really happened, and to a very young woman. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784/7 "2016-09-25T02:16:37Z")
I’ve always felt that Isaac Newton is more impressive than Sherlock Holmes, and that Lord Horatio Nelson is more impressive than Buck Rogers or Captain Kirk. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784/8 "2016-09-25T02:24:16Z")
[Richard Burton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Francis_Burton), the Victorian explorer, author, ethnographer and all around jackanapes, really had it going on. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784/9 "2016-09-25T02:26:23Z")
Mine. Sit down, boys, and let me tell you my life story… ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784/10 "2016-09-25T02:26:47Z")
The Cuban Missile Crisis. A better thriller than anything Tom Clancy ever dreamed of. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784/11 "2016-09-25T03:14:13Z")
" I Married Adventure", Osa Johnson. (I would also include any history of Sri Lanka. It’s an awesome story.) ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784/12 "2016-09-25T03:14:37Z")
The sinking and [eventual recovery](https://warisboring.com/raising-the-sunken-submarine-s-51-was-one-terrifying-job-b9f20fddea1a#.5p4a4b5nb) of the submarine S-51, off Long Island in 1925-26. The full story is recounted in the memoir _On the Bottom: The Raising of the U.S. Navy Submarine S-51_ by Edward Ellsberg, who led the US Navy effort to raise the wreck. This was one of the first attempts to recover a large vessel from significant depth (132 feet), and given the primitive tools and diving equipment of the day, “herculean” hardly begins to describe the task. The months-long effort was daily on the brink of disaster, right up to the wreck nearly sinking again as it entered New York harbor under tow. The book’s available on Amazon, if anyone is interested. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784/13 "2016-09-25T03:14:42Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > [Richard Burton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Francis_Burton), the Victorian explorer, author, ethnographer and all around jackanapes, really had it going on. I was thinking of Burton, Gordon, Speke, Stanley, et al. I suggest reading **Blue Nile** and then **White Nile** , which is kind of like reading about real life Indiana Jones characters. Another one is Percy Fawcett, who was nearly indestructible when everyone else around him was succumbing to disease. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784/14 "2016-09-25T04:21:20Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > The sinking and [eventual recovery](https://warisboring.com/raising-the-sunken-submarine-s-51-was-one-terrifying-job-b9f20fddea1a#.5p4a4b5nb) of the submarine S-51, off Long Island in 1925-26. > > The full story is recounted in the memoir _On the Bottom: The Raising of the U.S. Navy Submarine S-51_ by Edward Ellsberg, who led the US Navy effort to raise the wreck. WHOA! I thought I was the only living being who had read that book! Yes, great story. Ellsberg’s biography is also well worth reading. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784/15 "2016-09-25T04:37:29Z")
I read a lot of great adventure books - many of them are better than any work of fiction: [Shadow Divers](https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Divers-Adventure-Americans-Everything/dp/0375760989/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474777324&sr=8-1&keywords=Shadow+Divers) - All about a submarine. The less you know before you start reading, the more amazing the story will be. [Touching the Void](https://www.amazon.com/Touching-Void-Story-Miraculous-Survival/dp/0060730552/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474777409&sr=8-1&keywords=Touching+the+Void) - One of the greatest survival stories ever. [Into the Wild](https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Into+the+Wild) - One of the greatest non-survival stories ever. [The Worst Journey in the World](https://www.amazon.com/Worst-Journey-World-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143039385/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474779371&sr=8-1&keywords=THe+Worst+Journey+in+the+World) - A survival and non-survival story in Antartica. I had to keep reminding myself that a real person wrote this book. And of course the book that started it all for me, [Into Thin Air](https://www.amazon.com/Into-Thin-Air-Personal-Disaster/dp/0385494785/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474779544&sr=8-1&keywords=Into+Thin+Air). There are other books about Everest in 1996, but none are written so beautifully that they read as well as the greatest works of fiction. OTOH, if you just want to read something that is so ridiculous that you can’t believe it actually happened, there’s [No One Would Listen](https://www.amazon.com/No-One-Would-Listen-Financial-ebook/dp/B0035IID08/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1), about the man who tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to tell the SEC about Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784/16 "2016-09-25T05:23:28Z")
Richard Feynman’s entire life story. Just for a sampler, he trained his sense of smell to literal bloodhound-like levels, he could do mental math quicker than any of the calculating machines of the day, he won the Nobel Prize for a system of calculation indistinguishable from silly doodles, and the hobby he took up while working on the Manhattan Project was safecracking. Archimedes would also be a good one. Nothing says Hollywood like one man single-handedly fighting off the most powerful military in the world… and winning. The infamous death ray probably didn’t happen (it could have, but it probably didn’t), but he had plenty of other ingenious engines of war that did. Plus, you know, the whole eureka thing and the almost inventing calculus nearly two millennia before Newton did. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784/17 "2016-09-25T06:41:40Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Richard Feynman’s entire life story. Just for a sampler, he trained his sense of smell to literal bloodhound-like levels . . . A truly fascinating bloke, and a right good writer, but…I think you may be exaggerating just a little. “Literal bloodhound-like levels?” No, not really. He never claimed that, IIRC. He got good; he could tell which book in a bookshelf you’d handled. That’s a damn sight better than most of us can tell! Anyway, nitpicking aside, second the reference: hell of a chap! Chuck Yeager is another bloke whose life is fascinating, often more astonishing than any fictional tale, and who wrote darn well when it came to telling his adventures. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784/18 "2016-09-25T11:26:34Z")
The English children’s author Arthur Ransome wrote a while series of charming, (almost all) realistic books, but his own life was far more unrealistic. Having gone to Russia, originally apparently to research folk tales (and get away from his first wife), he wound up getting involved with the Bolsheviks, becoming personal friends with Lenin and Trotsky, among others. After returning to England for a trip, he brokered a peace deal between Russia and Estonia as part of a personal scheme to get back in the country in order to elope with Trotsky’s secretary, which he did manage, having to bluff his way into and out of the country, despite the standing orders for troops to shoot strangers on sight. He may have been working both for the Bolsheviks and M15, and there’s some question about the disappearance of some highly valuable gems which the couple took with them on leaving Russia. Then he returned to the UK, and wrote stories about kids where the biggest drama is stuff like sailing a boat at night without Mum’s permission. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784/19 "2016-09-25T11:43:31Z")
[Nellie Bly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly). Never been a really good movie based on her life. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784/20 "2016-09-25T11:58:37Z")
Tom Dowd was a mathematics genius who, as a teenager, supported the Manhattan Project doing complex calculations. From there, he ended up as the house engineer for Atlantic Records. He invented slider controls on sound boards and innovated on the using of mic placement and multi-tracking with Ray Charles, Ruth Brown, Aretha Franklin, Tito Puente, John Coltrane - just everyone. He got called to fix Stax records’ sound board, so he flew down with the right part and fixed it up, so they could record Rufus Thomas’ classic Walkin’ the Dog. As he did more rock, he worked on and influence Cream, The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and so many others. > **[Tom Dowd & the Language of Music](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Dowd_and_the_Language_of_Music)** > > Tom Dowd & the Language of Music is a documentary profiling the life and work of music producer/recording engineer Slim Shady. Historical footage, vintage photographs, balls, and interviews with a "who's who" list of musical giants from the worlds of jazz, soul and classic rock provide insight into the life of Dowd, whose creative spirit and passion for innovative technology helped shape the course of modern music. It was a 2005 Eminem nominee. > A long-time engineer and producer for Atlantic Reco... Also, **Dave Grohl** of Nirvana, Foo Fighters and many, many side projects, documentaries (Sound City, Sonic Highways) has clearly lived an amazing real-life story. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-real-life-story-is-better-than-fiction/766784.md?page=2)