http://www.babygotbooks.com/2008/03/04/the-fakery-continues/ Your head will collapse if there's nothing in it Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:16:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.babygotbooks.com/2008/03/04/the-fakery-continues/comment-page-1/#comment-80848 The Wren’s Nest » Storytelling with Tina McElroy Ansa, Malcom Gladwell, and The Moth Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:14:25 +0000 http://www.babygotbooks.com/2008/03/04/the-fakery-continues/#comment-80848 [...] First, an editorial from Tina McElroy Ansa, the author (and now publisher) from St. Simons, Georgia, on Margaret Seltzer’s recent fake memoir hullabaloo. [...] [...] First, an editorial from Tina McElroy Ansa, the author (and now publisher) from St. Simons, Georgia, on Margaret Seltzer’s recent fake memoir hullabaloo. [...]

]]> http://www.babygotbooks.com/2008/03/04/the-fakery-continues/comment-page-1/#comment-79836 heather (errantdreams) Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:42:03 +0000 http://www.babygotbooks.com/2008/03/04/the-fakery-continues/#comment-79836 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. 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.

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