"Memoirs"

So, everyone's talking about this James Frey controversy.
If you've been living under a rock for the last week or so, I'll give you the recap:
James Frey, author of the bestselling memoir, A Million Little Pieces, is being accused of embellishing many of the details that made the book such a huge success.

From the above-linked article:

Frey has been under fire after the super sleuths at the Smoking Gun Website unearthed a wealth of information suggesting that accounts of his criminal activities and the amount of time he spent behind bars were exaggerated, if not entirely fabricated.

There are rumors that Random House is offering a refund (which they deny) and the media is tearing this guy apart.

I have something to say about this:

Who fucking cares?
Of course he embellished it. I'm surprised it's not all complete crap!
It's a memoir which is defined by Merriam-Webster as:

1 : an official note or report : MEMORANDUM
2 a : a narrative composed from personal experience b : AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- usually used in plural c : BIOGRAPHY
3 a : an account of something noteworthy

The problem with this is....life is boring.
85% of our lives is the same shit day after day.
15% might be exciting but is that enough to fill a book? Probably not.
Sure, James Frey probably went through some things that are noteworthy but without embellishment, it would be a major snoozefest!
I'd have to lie my ass off to write a book worthy of publishing. I'd have to make up some amazing shit, turn my family members into alcoholics, drug users, child molesters and psychopaths.
I'd have to turn myself into a hero or a addict.
I'm neither.
I'm just a normal human being...like you and the majority of the people in the world.
To write a memoir, a person would be required to exaggerate, to take liberty with their own life story.

I'm sure James Frey did have a drug problem and did have to spend some time in rehab. Those details alone wouldn't sustain two books.

So, whether or not every single thing in his books are true, it's still a good read, it's still a good message and I'm sure it's no different than any other "memoir" we've read.

Real life is shit. Sometimes you've got to dress it up to make it presentable for the world.

Posted by De at January 12, 2006 04:48 PM | TrackBack