The Truth is More Unbelievable than Fiction

Every once in a while, I come across real-life stories in the news that would never pass muster in a fictional novel. Few would be able to suspend belief enough to buy the story. By now, the whole Petraeus scandal is old news, but I can’t help thinking it would take an epic novel to capture every detail, and that it would be deemed too silly to be published. The story would probably be more unbelievable than the fact that a man in China actually left his wife because she didn’t reveal she had been ‘ugly’ way back when, and that a cleaning woman in Sweden stole a four-carriage train at a depot and drove it around for a mile before crashing it into a house.

Call me jaded, but Manti Te'o and the whole fake, dead girlfriend thing didn’t surprise me, though I admit I hope he wasn't in on it.