My thoughts on…the truth behind the James Frey controversy
I planned put up this post over three hours ago, but I had a project to do that took up all my time, and it isn’t even fully finished yet. Better late than never though. The long standing James Frey controversy has finally been put to rest. His best selling memoir “A Million Little Pieces” has been confirmed as a literary lie. The truth behind the controversy was revealed when James was interviewed by the queen of talk herself on the Oprah Winfrey Show, the place where it all started, so I guess it was the most fitting place to end it. She carefully dissected every questionable event in his book, the time in jail, the dental surgery, the death of “Lilly”, everything. Frey broke down under Oprah’s barrage of questions, yet still tried to defend the validity of his book. How brazen! I knew his book was a lie all along. It all began with the Smoking Gun’s report, and when the publishers of his book began offering refunds to customers.
Even though I’m glad the truth was revealed and Frey was exposed as a lying rat, I somehow felt sorry for him. He looked like a criminal under trial, blank stares and all. Woe be unto those that invoke the wrath of Oprah. If you’ve been living in a cave for the past few months and are unaware of this whole thing, I have a post that clears it up. And the sad thing is that it was such a compelling book that he could’ve just sold it as fiction. But non-fiction books obviously have more appeal, as they have that “reality” factor. Frey’s little stunt has done damage not only to his reputation, but the reputation of rehab centers and the memoir business. Drug addicts reading his book will see rehab as a place of torture instead of hope, and every memoir following this will have its validity questioned. Despite that, I just glad that the truth came out before his lie could do any more damage.
The bad part of this isn’t that this particular guy got caught. The bad part is that it’s likely that there may be many other memoirs that have been published that are really little more than fiction with a lit bit of reality added to them. I can even imagine a book editor sending a manuscript back with post-it notes on the parts that need to be spiced up.
Great Post Leon…keep it up. Irie.
I felt sorry for him and I hope he doesn’t go back to the bottle after all the public humiliation.Like Mike am wondering how many memoirs embellished the truth.
Abeni,
I would imagine at least 50% of the memoirs that are published contain a whole lot of emblishment. Personally I stay away from those type of Non-Fiction books since I prefer books that I know are fiction and I don’t have to wonder if they are real or not.
i think it is very natural for humans to embellish memory. we’re not computers.
We may embellish what we don’t remember. However, if we don’t remember, would it be so wrong to say, I can’t remember exactly but I think it went like this and then you could actually add some accounts. This is honesty. None of us are perfect. However when you write a memoir as a fact and then ficitionalize it without letting your audience know, then that’s just dishonest.
yes. you’re right and the publishers are partly responsible for not advising publishing as fiction based on real events.