Memories

For a site that's written by a writer (it's what it says on my degree, people), I don't weigh in much on literature-related topics. I like to keep up with what's being published, and I try to read books that people tell me are good. But I can't keep up with fiction entirely, mainly because I also enjoy reading a lot of nonfiction and political essays too. Right now, I'm reading Spanking the Donkey, which is a collection of essays about the 2004 elections. Next up, The Red Tent. See? Way behind.
I usually make it a point to not read Oprah's Book Club selections until the hubbub dies down. It's a personal preference, mainly trying to avoid being stigmatized as the Girl Who Only Reads Oprah Books. I'm glad Oprah reminds Americans that there are, as Hal Sparks says, books that have words that makes pictures in your mind. I hear that a lot of Oprah's book choices are pretty good. Alicia's currently reading A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, and says it's excellent. Of course, the Smoking Gun came up with a bunch of police reports saying that Frey completely exaggerated the circumstances of his drug use and crimes, and now every media outlet is all up in his grill about it, asking him where he was in 1988, for reals.
Here's my two cents. Nothing is ever completely nonfiction.
I'm going to go all Matrix on you here. Any author, be it a journalist or a blogger or a personal essay writer is not going to have the facts completely right 100% of the time. This may be because he forgot. It may be because he didn't know in the first place and pulled things out of his ass to make up for it. Maybe it's because the person in question is Dan Shaughnessy and he's a fucking idiot to begin with. But nothing is ever all true. Details get lost, aspects of an event that are in fact minor are exaggerated to make a stronger connection with an audience. Sometimes it's intentional, othertimes it's not. Sometimes, like changing people's names, it's for other people's benefit, and other times it benefits the author. I can't speak for Frey because I wasn't there. But Oprah and Alicia both seem to think this book will impact the reader in a meaningful way, and as long as the essential facts of the book are true, then the book has done what it set out to do.
And, no, by "essential facts" I don't mean that the charge Frey faced in 1988 were DWI and not DUI. I mean the fact that Frey was a drug addict and committed crimes. I think if those events took place, he was checked into rehab by his family and went through those things, then there is no need for Random House to offer a refund to people who bought the book, which is completely ludicrous. It's not like he was a choir boy who wrote a drug memoir. Frey abused drugs, so the central fact of his book is true. And until the Smoking Gun came out with the police reports, no one questioned the validity of Frey's claims. As my professors would say, it feels true. Whether it's fiction or memoir, it should always make a reader feel something. So as long as James Frey took drugs and was reckless, everyone should just shut the hell up and enjoy a good book.