Author Gay Talese said he would not be promoting his latest book — and then changed his mind — after the Washington Post raised serious doubts about the story it tells.
Called The Voyeur’s Motel, it’s the nonfiction account of an Aurora, Colo., man named Gerald Foos, who says he bought the motel in question in order to spy on the sexual lives of his guests. The book combines Talese’s reporting with Foos’ own journals to produce a kind of retractable telescope of voyeurism: readers watching Talese watch Foos watch his guests.
A shortened version of The Voyeur’s Motel appeared in the New Yorker earlier this year, attracting considerable attention and criticism, and Steven Spielberg bought the movie rights.
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