Authors and telling the truth

I found this quite amusing. I had a long chat some time ago with recently deceased Frank McCourt (RIP) - author of Angela's Ashes - at a reception for Nick Laird's Utterly Monkey. Frank was terribly friendly and was interested in my experience at the Open University. Quite a few people in Limerick claimed his book was a fiction. I think they were possibly the petit bourgeousie who dreaded the tourist board's image of Limerick being diluted.