I'm a dictator, get me out of here

Saddam Hussein.Man Booker speculation.  Michael Finkel True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa

2005 has been an up and down year for brutal dictators. Hitler, on the sixtieth anniversary of his suicide found his Mein Kampf at the top spot on the Turkish book charts. Mao finds himself, or the unflattering portrait of him contained in Jung Chang's Mao: A Life, topping the UK and Irish non-fiction lists. Now Saddam Hussein, still being held awaiting his prosecution, is also causing a stir in literary circles. Emasculated by the widely circulated photographs of him washing his clothes wearing only underwear, he has found further controversy as a fiction writer. His latest novel, reportedly finished on the eve of the US invasion has been banned by Jordanian censors just before its proposed publication. His fourth novel, it had already been published in Iraq with an authenticating forward by his daughter Raghad. Catchily titled Get Out of Here, Curse You, it tells of an Arab warrior's defeat of a Judeo – Christian insurgency. Having seen his past history with body doubles, it seems fair to look at the authorship of the book with scepticism

Nothing but the truth?

When New York lost their always faltering bid to host the 2012 Olympics, their organising committee were led from the auditorium by Hillary Clinton. An unidentified wag was heard to cry 'You bought the wrong Clinton'. It is part of the confusion and contradictions which have always surrounded Clinton, caught in the dichotomies of policy-maker and wife, cuckold and manipulator, governor and Presidential candidate. The latest chapter in a life which seems to be building towards a run to the White House in 2008 was released last week with The Truth About Hillary, Edward Klein's book, immediately rising to the top of the non-fiction lists. Serialised this month by Vanity Fair it has been described as a work of fiction by Clinton aides. It certainly positions Clinton on a firmly liberal agenda at a time when she appears to have been trying to move to a more centrist position. Much was made last year of Unfit for Command and how it damaged the Kerry campaign. This sort of negative impact is now anticipated from The Truth About Hillary. However, it strikes us that it was not so much the book that did it for Kerry but Kerry himself. This would also seem to be the case for Hillary who seems unable to replicate the casual popularity earned by her husband. Whether a book written to damage her will ultimately damage her ambitions remains to be seen.

Booking their places

Man Booker speculation has begun very early this year – almost four months to go before the shortlist's publication and the UK press are already finding it hard to see any room being left on the list for outsiders or newcomers. A strong spring/summer for fiction has seen perennial Man Booker favourites Kazuo Ishiguro and Ian McEwan publish Never Let Me Go and Saturday, both highly-tipped contenders. Still to come are new efforts from Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith and JM Coetzee for whom expectations are high. Obviously, this feverish hype and lazy speculation will be forgotten when the judges rebel against expectation and choose some long shots but for now it throws up some interesting possibilities. The greatest of these is that we might for once have read a good proportion of the shortlist before it is announced. Another early entrant in the race, Julian Barnes' Arthur and George is published this week and with great reviews has leapt to the top of the critics' own shortlists. Barnes achieved initial fame when nominated for Flaubert's Parrot in 1984 and his latest novel centres on another of his literary heroes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Could the real Finkel please stand up?

It has been a curious few years for US journalism – stories invented, stories exaggerated, standards publicly plummetting. Woodward and Bernstein's profiles were revived via the outing of Deep Throat and the recent jailing of Judith Millar for refusing to identify her sources has increasingly made the storyteller the story, pushing the reporters centre stage. Last year's movie Shattered Glass showed how these changes have evolved and this has been exemplified by the extraordinary story of Michael Finkel whose own version of the bizarre events that befell him has been published in True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa. Finkel suffered a very public sacking when he fabricated parts of an article for the New York Times. His disgrace was short lived however when he found his identity had been stolen by Christian Longo, a murder suspect who was subsequently jailed. Finkel developed a relationship with Longo while the latter was in jail and his book is a fascinating retelling of their curious parallel stories.