The Factory of Facts: A Memoir

By Luc Sante and Lucy Sante

Book Overview

The acclaimed author of Low Life reinvents the memoir in a cunning, lyrical book that is at once a personal history and a meditation on the construction of identity.

Born in Belgium but raised in New Jersey, Lucy Sante transformed herself from a pious, timid Belgian child into a boisterous American adolescent, who eschewed French while fantasizing about the pop star Fran oise Hardy. To show how this transformation came about--and why it remained incomplete--The Factory of Facts combines family anecdote and ancestral legend; detailed forays into Belgian history, language, and religion; and deft synopses of the American character.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679746501
• ISBN13: 9780679746508
• Release Date: March 1999
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Boosting Cornellian Boxes

"This book is the missing link between Benjamin's Arcades and Frank Kogan's fanzine Why Music Sucks, more streetwise than the former and with more potatoes than the latter, while not overlooking the traditions of the Rabelaisian catalogue, the Bretonian weekly junkshop run, or just good ol' Oulipian hijinks. You read this, then shoplift his templates and project them up onto the mural on the darkened childhood bedroom wall of your own life. Sometimes they come out looking like Nan Goldin's photographs; your psyche runs for cover." - John Wójtowicz

An introduction to a wonderful country

When I had the opportunity to study in Belgium I was told "Belgium is a beautiful country - when the sun shines." That is certainly correct. But if this book had been published before I left for Belgium it would have shown me a way of seeing this country in a whole new light. There is more than one source of sunlight. Luc Sante is one of those sources. If you are planning an extended stay in Belgium read it before you go. Even better, if you have had the experience of living in Belgium for a reasonable length of time you will want to get on the first plane back there.

An amazing factory -- in glorious full production

Sante has a wonderful mind, a kind heart, the eye of a detective, an uncanny ear for language, cultural differences, nuance, and the meaning of things. In this book you come to know him and to know a lot about his subject: Belgium, where he started from (the adored only child of quite wonderful parents), and his experience of emigration to the US, and living in two -- or more -- (physical, religious, linguistic, historical, geographic, mental, psychic) places. A Lacanian reverence for language informs this work, which is worth reading and rereading. Each chapter can stand alone as an absorbing and fascinating essay. Wow! You even learn the proper way to pronounce "Sante."