Name: Tess
Home: St. Louis
Maybe I Could Write a Memoir After All
Despite the trendiness of memoirs, I have never considered writing one for two reasons:
1) My life is boring.
2) My memory is horrible.
The scandal over James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, however, has convinced me that neither reason is a serious obstacle. According to The Smoking Gun,
Oprah has defended the author, but the publisher is offering a refund to dissatisfied customers.
I am going to be very angry at Frey if he, like Jonathan Franzen, angers Oprah into ceasing to pick contemporary authors. How can he destroy my Oprah-picks-my-novel fantasy? We unpublished novelists need to dream.
But on the bright side, I can always get to work on a memoir.... Now that I think about it, my criminal history is starting to come back to me. Wasn't I wanted in four states?
1) My life is boring.
2) My memory is horrible.
The scandal over James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, however, has convinced me that neither reason is a serious obstacle. According to The Smoking Gun,
Police reports, court records, interviews with law enforcement personnel, and other sources have put the lie to many key sections of Frey's book. The 36-year-old author, these documents and interviews show, wholly fabricated or wildly embellished details of his purported criminal career, jail terms, and status as an outlaw "wanted in three states."
Oprah has defended the author, but the publisher is offering a refund to dissatisfied customers.
I am going to be very angry at Frey if he, like Jonathan Franzen, angers Oprah into ceasing to pick contemporary authors. How can he destroy my Oprah-picks-my-novel fantasy? We unpublished novelists need to dream.
But on the bright side, I can always get to work on a memoir.... Now that I think about it, my criminal history is starting to come back to me. Wasn't I wanted in four states?
posted by Tess | 7:34 AM
2 Comments:
I didn't know Smoking Gun was owned by Time Warner. That's disappointing. I just thought they were a renegade group of freedom fighters exposing people on the internet. :(
I thought what Oprah said was interesting (the bit I heard on the news.)
I think she wouldn't have been wrong at all to say she was disappointed in Frey. She said she was disappointed in the controversary over the book. She also said she trusts the publisher of a book regarding what category a book fits into.
So be careful when you write that memoir, Tess, that you tell them ALL of it. Or call it fiction, right?
Hh
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