Is James Frey a fraud?

Jack, I usually respect your taste, but he's not a great stylist: he's terrible. I couldn't get through the first chapter of his book whether I knew he was full of **** or not.

too late - we've been discussing it for a day or so now.

missed the window, as it were.

I type like a freebasin' psycho, yo.

You should really read the ethics book before you attempt any hero worshipping...

There are, however, purposeful and gross exaggerations of memory.

And complete fabrications, too.

I'm sorry, but to remember running over a cop, getting an Rodney King beat-down, and serving a three month jail sentance when you merely had a ho-hum DUI arrest and spent a couple hours in a holding cell would require the sort of disconnection from reality normally seen in people with advanced cases of schizophrenia. If James Frey isn't a liar, he would have to be completely delusional.

I will say this and this only. I know that, as one of the options states, memory is memory and not hard fact but how it is remembered. HOWEVER, there is a clear line between that, completely making things up, and "borrowing" from other people's life experiences and claiming them as your own.

In other words, heck yeah he's a fraud. But that's my opinion.

Yeah, Frey waaaayy crossed the line of "misremembering."

I understand that memory isn't always accurate, but what he did (especially with regard to the train accident) was ridiculous and uncionscionable.

And I understand, actually why Oprah is defending him. There have been so many people who sadly, have used his book as inspiration. I think that Oprah wants to preserve their faith, so to speak.

I can forgive a few omissions or exaggerations for dramatic effect, but Mr. Frey seems to have crossed the line between memoir and fiction.

The larger issue is how the reading public and the publishing industry want to approach the memoir. Memory can be a tricky thing and people often remember events differently. But is it really responsible for companies to publish memoirs without looking into the basic facts?

In the early nineties, an Australian woman named Helen Darville wrote an anti-Semitic "memoir" about her family's supposed Ukrainian background and their participation in the Holocaust. Turns out she was of British origins and none of her relatives were National Socialists.

Another woman living in Australia wrote a "memoir" about growing up in Jordan and the mistreatment of women in that country. Although she was of Jordanian descent, Norma Khouri grew up in the Chicago suburbs and worked in real estate.

I think that readers deserve better. Memoirs may be entertainment, but authors should still stick to the facts.

Jackie

Like I said, I am a teenage transvestite vampire slayer. So sue me.

(At least Truman Friggin Capote did not lie about In Cold Blood...)

Lantern Jack said:

Okay, okay, okay.

Still, y'all haven't won me over to the hate bandwagon.

I don't know. I guess James Frey is my Gollum. I pity him. I can't help it. Believe it or not, this flinty ticker of mine is capable of squirting out a dreg or two of sympathy every now and then.

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But how can you know if your pity was generated by something that he really experienced or by something he fabricated? If some of the crucial events in his life story were lies, it calls into question everything he claims, from the big things down to the small, relatively inconsequential ones.

What does this mean for us writers? Some may think this is interesting but not particularly important to us, but I feel this may be very important to us all in the long-term. As the best selling non-fiction book 0f 2005, with sales over 1.7 million copies, there are a huge number of book-buying people out there who got ripped off. Although they have agreed to accept returns, Doubleday has not (and probably will not) do a mass recall. They have also stated that future printings will include a "note" from the author, probably saying he may have "embellished" a little bit here and there.

In my opinion, we should not be ambiguous or forgiving in our assessment of what he (and others) have done. Whatever your genre, in the eyes of many readers, we are all cut from the same mold. Things like this have an impact that can last long after the scandal itself is forgotten. It may merely rest in the subconscious of a potential book buyer, but the seed of skepticism and mistrust has been planted.

LJ, imagine you're shopping around your crazy (but true) and gut-wrenching memoir and some publisher tells you to get lost because he doesn't believe you and asks you for proofs, because if James Frey could lie, anyone could, and now every publisher is skeptical...

maestrowork said:

LJ, imagine you're shopping around your crazy (but true) and gut-wrenching memoir and some publisher tells you to get lost because he doesn't believe you and asks you for proofs, because if James Frey could lie, anyone could, and now every publisher is skeptical...

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Exactly. And what about (some of) those 1.7 million who don't normally buy books, but decided to buy this one. I can just hear them telling their friends, "I've only bought one book in the last five years, paid 25 bucks for it after taxes, and the @#$% thing turned out to be full of lies!"

Then you don't know the nature and consequences of lies.

And LJ, I am starting to wonder, the reason why you're defending this guy, even to a point of "worshipping" -- dare I say... is that because you, too, think lying is a good way to achieve success? Do you lie? Do you like to lie? Do you lie about your experiences and your "memoir"? Do you enjoy lying? And you see nothing wrong with that to get some attention, maybe even to succeed and gain fame and fortune?

I am wondering.

LJ,

What bothers me about the book is that is gives addicts a very unrealistic idea of what in-patient treatment is like. In fact, I have to wonder if he was in a hospital at all or for any length of time beyond two days.

Although I hate to kick your Gollum, I find it hard to feel pity for someone who made millions from lying. I have squinted my eyes, held my breath, and tried desperately to wrench pity from the dark recesses of my soul. I just can't.

maestrowork said:

Then you don't know the nature and consequences of lies.

And LJ, I am starting to wonder, the reason why you're defending this guy, even to a point of "worshipping" -- dare I say... is that because you, too, think lying is a good way to achieve success? Do you lie? Do you like to lie? Do you lie about your experiences and your "memoir"? Do you enjoy lying? And you see nothing wrong with that to get some attention, maybe even to succeed and gain fame and fortune?

I am wondering.

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Lantern Jack doesn't think lying is a good way to achieve success. He is very trustworthy, and has always been honest with me.

MW,

Why all the anger?

LJ, I did NOT say you're a liar. Please re-read my post. However, I found your initial post (telling us how wonderful you thought Frey was), and your subsequent posts implying that his lying was no big deal... prompted me to question what your attitude toward lying was. That's all. I wasn't saying then, and I am not saying it now, that you're a liar.


I for one do not pity or have sympathy for Frey. For one thing, he's made $millions deceiving the public; he's gone on national TV and lied about his work and his life. He's made a fool of everyone who has TRULY gone through these ordeals (with drugs and alcohol), mocking their experiences by making a fortune making up his own stories. I do not have pity for the man because he's right now sitting in his posh house laughing all the way to the bank, while a true drug addict is suffering somewhere without a home.

Lantern Jack said:

P.P.P.P.P.S. Do I lie about my memoir and experiences? The memoir I worked on for the past five years? ****ing burn!

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Don't blame Ray for his skepticism, LJ. You can't tacitly approve of the deception perpetrated by someone without the stink rubbing off on you.

p.s. I think Ray was merely trying to give you a taste of what you may encounter in the post-Frey world of memoir acceptability.