Memoir fakers...not again!
Just reading about the latest memoir scandal perpetrated by Herman Rosenblat in his now cancelled Holocaust memoir Angels at the Fence. More here
Poor Oprah. (And poor me. She’s really never going to let memoirists on her show again.) In addition to talking up Angels at the Fence, she was also duped a few years ago by James Frey and his Million Little Pieces memoir about addiction.
You might ask, What’s the big deal? So these books are more fiction than fact? I can’t speak for Angels at the Fence since I haven’t read it, but I can explain why finding out Frey’s Million Little Pieces was a sham was such a big deal. MLP was amazing and raw and gross and inspiring and real. I had never read anything like it before, and I’d imagine most of the public had never either. It was very moving. It also really inspired me while I was writing my memoir because it was so courageous. MPL became a massive bestseller and sold millions of copies. It’s really sad to think of how many people were touched by his story and then let down.
I’ve been asked if my memoir is “real.” Yes. It is real. It all happened and I wrote it as I remembered it (which, of course, can have it’s flaws). I also had help from friends’ memories, medical records, school transcripts, and a whole lot of journals. There isn’t much dialogue in the book, but when it is used I tried to keep it natural to what would have happened—in other words, I know what I would have basically said in situations and I can assume the same for friends, family, etc. Don’t get me wrong, there’s certainly filler in my book to help the flow or create transitions. And maybe those things didn’t quite happen in that exact order or at that exact time, but it all happened.
People have great stories to tell—maybe they are wholly or partially based on real events or maybe they are entirely concocted—but let’s call them what they are. Memoir = real. Fiction = imaginary.
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