Remembrance of things passed: how my friend Stephen Glass got away with it

Washington Monthly, July-August, 2003 by Jonathan Chait

After his firing, "Stephen Glass" does poignant, soul-building penance working at a video store. Perhaps something like this took place. But in fact Stephen Glass, unlike "Stephen Glass," spent much of the subsequent time getting his J.D. at Georgetown. You can see why this detail never made it into the novel. Few things are less poignant or soul-building than attending law school.

A Sin-Sin Situation

The one great truth of the book is what it reveals, unintentionally, of Glass's view of himself. In his own mind, he is more sinned against than sinning. At one point, he writes about how he identifies with the Bob Dylan song "Idiot Wind," the lament of a man wrongly accused. The most venal characters in the novel are his critics. In one scene, a writer sleeps with Glass and then publishes an expose. In another, his chief journalistic tormentor grabs his dying dog and holds it hostage for an interview. Glass presents himself, meanwhile, as living in endless remorse, while the pompous, preening former colleagues who denounce him remain without exception unaware of their own moral emptiness. He sprinkles admissions of his guilt throughout, but they sound rote, like legal disclaimers, lacking any emotional force.

When he appeared on "60 Minutes" earlier this spring, as part of his publicity rollout, Glass admitted he had a lot of amends to make. That he cannot tell the difference between amends and revenge is the sign of a very confused soul.

JONATHAN CHATT is a senior editor at The New Republic.