Review: Si-Cology 101
I read this immediately after reading The Lifespan of a Fact, and in many ways they could not be more different books, but they touch in one fun way. Lifespan is about how many liberties you can take with the truth when making art; Si-Cology makes it clear that Si Robertson (one of the folks on Duck Dynasty) and his co-author Mark Schlabach dealt with the same issues while making this cash-in memoir. They say (as Si):
At my age, a few of the details are cloudy, but I’ll recollect the coming stories as best I can. Hey, just remember it isn’t a lie if you think it’s true! It’s up to you, the reader to figure out what’s truth and what’s fiction. Best of luck with that, Jack! May the [F]orce be with you.
So, there it is. Si Robertson, redneck from Duck Dynasty, and John D’Agata, intellectual from the core of academe, defending the same position in lying to the reader for the sake of a better story.
Si and Mark are creating a pretty straight ahead memoir spiced up with some jokes and some tall tales. The tale of family and values goes down easy and is a lot of fun. I laughed at some of the jokes. It sounds like an interesting life to have lived. Si seems like the sort of guy it would be fun to shoot the breeze with, and I think that’s what he wanted to communicate.
The bombastic quote about truth and memory captures the style well. He’s living his life loud, though he does say nice things about his family and friends.
Good fun.