Does it matter whether or not a fictional book is actually based on the author's real experiences?

Old School is novel that is full of fictional events, but which is probably based, in some way, on the author's personal experience as a poor kid who went to a fancy prep school

To me, yes.

Just had this discussion with a professor of mine. If a person says, to me, that they could read Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried in the same way and with the sa…