I saw that James Frey was going to be on Oprah this afternoon, so I begged asked my kids if I could watch it instead of the normal diet of PBS afternoon cartoons.
Oprah was not happy at all. I’m surprised James Frey agreed to even come on. The weird thing was he even seemed dishonest and evasive when she was directly asking him questions. I got the impression that he doesn’t think he did anything wrong.
They also had his editor on, and asked her about her role in editing the book. I guess they were asking why she didn’t follow up on the claims he made in his book. As an editor, how would she even know which ones to fact-check? And is that really her job? I wonder if he signed a contract attesting that his memoir was a true account of what happened in his life?
So who is at fault for this? In my opinion, it’s James Frey. But is it that big a deal? Supposedly this book is a good read. But now, if and when I read it, I’ll consider it fiction. Does it make it any less of a good book? Hmm, hard to say. It all boils down to the reader (not to mention Oprah) feeling deceived.
I think I mentioned in a previous post that I’m helping a client with editing his memoirs. Now I’m not an editor at a major publishing company, and depending on whether this ends up being self-published or published by a major publishing house, it may not ever be seen by an in-house editor. But still, I have to make a leap of faith that the memoir my client and I are working on is all accurate. It’s from memory, so I’m sure no memoir is 100% accurate like it could be if you could rewind a videotape.
One of the guests on the show recommended the publishers come up with a rating system for memoirs based on the degree of believability. I’m not sure how you could possibly do that.
The much talked about root canal without novacaine….I’ve never had a root canal, thank goodness, but I’m sure some people could get through it without drugs, just as some women go through childbirth without them. As a child, my older brother would refuse novacaine shots to get cavities filled. I, on the other hand, would have probably passed out from the pain of the drill. Everyone is different.
So I guess the moral of the story is if you want to write a dramaticized version of your life, label it a fictional novel.