The Fakery Continues
From here on out, all memoirs will be considered bogus until proven otherwise.*
Exhibit A: Margaret B. Jones, author of the acclaimed memoir Love and Consequences, took her turn to tearfully admit that her story was bogus. The book describes “her life as a half-white, half-Native American girl growing up in South Central Los Angeles as a foster child who ran drugs for members of the Bloods, an infamous gang. The author’s biography on the back flap says she graduated from the University of Oregon.” Not so true. The gig was up when her older sister called the publisher to tattle after seeing Jones’ (not her real name) picture in The New York Times. Ouch.
Exhibit B: No one looks good in the story of the “I was raised by wolves during the Holocaust” debacle – In this week’s other bogus memoir saga. The publisher apparently ignored her suspicions about the story until losing a breech of contract court case with the author to the tune of $30+ Million. Then she began to have her doubts about the story.
* – With the exception of Dean Wareham’s Black Postcards. I know that he was actually in the bands that he names in his upcoming rock memoir. I confirmed that with my own eyes on various occasions.
March 4, 2008 7:24 am 2 Comments
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By heather (errantdreams), March 4, 2008 @ 8:42 am
Youch. The funny thing is, you expect a certain amount of detail-smudging in a memoir. That’s why it’s a memoir and not an autobiography. The author might, say, combine two real people into one character because it reads better that way, or she might embellish on some dialogue so it’s more entertaining. But the unspoken rule is that the basic events and heart of the memoir had better be real! Otherwise it’s just fiction.