By Sheila Orysiek
SAN DIEGO — While browsing through the fiction section of your local library among the authors whose last names begin with “K,” you may see “Schindler’s List,” the book upon which the movie was based.
Oy Gevalt – someone’s made a big mistake! Wasn’t this story true?
Yes, the story is true; the people were real and did the things the book says they did. So, why is it in the fiction section?
Determining how a book is catalogued is not a science – it is subjective. Should a book about Chagall be in the biography section or the art section? Who decides?
Anyone can decide. Except in older books, if you look on the reverse side of the title page, where the copyright/publication information is given, you will see a listing of cataloguing suggestions from the Library of Congress. The list is in order of preference.
For instance – these are the cataloging suggestions for a book I own: “Who Are the Jews of India?” (excellent book, by the way)
1. Jews – India – History
2. Jews – India – Identity
3. Jews – Ethnic Relations
4. Bene – Israel
Cataloging Librarians select the category they think most appropriate – sometimes this depends upon the population they serve. In a locality with a predominant Jewish population it may be kept in a section devoted to Jewish history while in a locality with a preponderance of people from India, it may be shelved with other books about India.
If a book is published locally and comes to a local library first, that library makes the call and other libraries will often – but not always – follow that lead.
So, what makes Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally – fiction? While the story is true as well as the characters, the author used this historical information and reworked it into a novel. You can easily see the difference between historical fiction and non-fiction history. A book written as non-fiction will almost always have a bibliography, notes, annotations, index, sources, etc. This tells you where the author got the information.
A book which is based on fact but is fictionalized will usually lack this information and so you will see dialogue between the characters and declarative information without annotation or attribution to other sources. Historical fiction and non-fiction history are not the same thing.
Here is the Library of Congress catalogue information on the book Schindler’s List:
Keneally, Thomas. Schindler’s List. 1. Schindler, Oskar,. 1908-1974–fiction. 2. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)–fiction. 3. World war, 1939-1945–fiction.
Thus “Schindler’s List” is to be found in the Fiction section of your local library.
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Sheila Orysiek is a freelance writer who specializes in the arts. She may be contacted via sheila.orysiek@sdjewishworld.com