“How autobiographical is it?” As it happens, there is a right and a wrong answer to this question. The wrong answer first: “It’s not really autobiographical. I suppose there are bits of me in there, bits of things that really happened, but they’ve all been changed around and jumbled up with other things that I just made up, and there are bits of people I know, but they are all mixed up with other bits I invented. You know, it’s fiction?” This answer has the merit of usually being true, but it is still the wrong answer. The right answer is: “It’s completely autobiographical. Yes! Everything in
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