Janetnews.com Blog

Oprah asked the hard questions to James Frey who admitted he fabricated the truth or as Oprah simply said–lied in his book A Million Little Pieces.

As in any good journalism organization, the truth is vital.  What about nonfiction books? Should we hold the same fact checking standards to a genre that claims to speak the truth?  Or are their allowances in memoirs and in author’s memories that we should let go.  I mean it has been proven when a crime happens, witnesses all seem to have their own recollection.  

What should Frey have done?  Frey should have just said, ”This is a novel BASED on my life experiences.”  BASED ON is the key word.  The book should have NEVER been allowed to be sold as a nonfiction book.  Publishers do not have the strict policies as news organizations do, they only go by the word of their authors.  So should we go with truth with a small “t” or Truth with a capital “T” when it comes to nonfiction books?  It’s hard to say because isn’t it all relative?  I mean, take for example a celebrities memoirs?  How many people have refuted their depiction in one of those books?  Frey, I believe did wrong.  He mislead the public into saying, this is the ABSOLUTE Truth with a capital “T”. 

But, how many times do we embellish our own true stories? It makes me wonder how many other nonfiction books that I have read embellished the facts.  I’m sure it probably is not the first time an author of a memoir or nonfiction book has lied.  But, we also have to allow more creative freedoms than the normal New York Times’s article.  Let’s not forget that it’s called “creative” nonfiction for a reason.  Maybe Frey’s book was not ALL fiction, but shouldn’t books be placed in more than one category. I mean, sometimes I think Homer’s Illiad should not only be found in poetry, but also classic fiction and even in philosophy.   

The solution could be that we create a new genre category… “Almost the Truth.” 

Questions for Others in Frey Scandal - New York Times

The questions about how publishers should deal with the truth or falsity of the books they publish are likely to continue to resound through the book business. Yesterday, publishers, literary agents and booksellers said that, in the wake of Ms. Winfrey’s condemnation of Mr. Frey and Doubleday, they expected memoirs and other works of nonfiction to come under increasing scrutiny before and after publication.

Some publishers said they would continue to rely on authors and their literary agents to stand behind their works, even as they occasionally press them for details on some of their claims.