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Yes, although the genre is much more subdued today than it was when Wolfe and Capote were first
writing. It has become much more commercially important. There’s just a lot more money in
nonfiction than there ever was before. That may have had a smoothing effect on it; it might have made
it a bit more commercial and self-conscious. A book like Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air is a very
good, straightforward piece of writing that became a huge bestseller. Into Thin Air doesn’t contain
much in the way of literary experiment, whereas The Right Stuff and In Cold Blood were enormous
literary experiments.
We’re in the post–New Journalism era. Truman Capote’s and Tom Wolfe’s achievements have been
achieved. I think the real question is, “Where’s the literary experiment today? Who’s on the cutting
edge of literary nonfiction? What’s next?” I don’t know.
BY RICHARD PRESTON:
The Boat of Dreams: A Christmas Story, Touchstone Books, 2003
The Demon in the Freezer, Random House, 2003
The Cobra Event, Random House, 1997
The Hot Zone, Random House, 1994
American Steel, Simon & Schuster, 1991
First Light, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1987