Fun with the Facts

Journalist Nina Siegal’s debut novel, A Little Trouble with the Facts (HarperCollins), at left, tells the Chandleresque story of Valerie Vane, a style reporter at a big New York City daily whose spectacular fall from grace lands her on the obits desk and smack in the middle of the intrigue surrounding the death of a once-famous graffiti artist. As Vane plumbs the darker depths of the art world, some readers may wonder how much Siegal, an Art+Auction scribe, drew from real life. Could the petite yet formidable Chelsea dealer Darla Deitrick, for example, be a cross between Mary Boone and Tony Shafrazi? Siegal won’t say but does admit, “I wanted the book to have the feel of a roman à clef—you’re never sure exactly what’s fact and what’s fiction.” 

"Fun with the Facts" originally appeared in the March 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's March 2008 Table of Contents.