A couple of months back, New Republic staffer Alex Heard took on the comedic colossus that is David Sedaris, charging that the author, whose books are frequently listed as nonfiction, grossly exaggerates and even occasionally fabricates the events around which his wry essays are based. Ever since the article appeared, critics, readers, and authors alike have been debating not only whether the charges are true, but whether such lofty standards amount to nitpicking when applied to a humorist whose work is far removed from fact-based scholarship.