Comments:

Smed - 2006-01-23 17:42:56
Whatever I write will probably have bluing for extra whiteness! I think he was hoist with his own petard, and only Oprah is helping him now.
-------------------------------
Judith - 2006-01-23 23:05:02
This whole thing with James Frey makes me very glad I didn't waste my time reading his book. It's not really the fact that he highly exaggerated and made up things. It's the way he's handled this whole thing. Blech. And your last entry was very nicely written. Well done! I wanted to thank you for your comment about my last entry. It's much appreciated.
-------------------------------
claudia - 2006-01-24 08:57:45
Actually, I am the last one behind the times on this story. I have not been paying attention to Frey because first of all, I have no interest in real or imagined drug stories. So, when I saw the book in the store, I passed it by. I think part of the problem - the blurring of fact and fiction - is the number of Author Factories (like Iowa) that churn out dozens of "writers" who do not understand that just because they lived it (or didn't) doesn't make it an interesting story. And, fiction is harder to write WELL than it first appears. It's very hard to turn a "true event" into something that reads like a story and it's very hard to "make up" a story someone wants to read. Memoir still needs to follow the same arc that fiction does - there has to be a compelling conflict and a believable resolution. The character has to come out of it changed in some way. And that's why I think these memoirs end up as fiction - because our lives are not series of changes for the better. We don't often learn from our mistakes. Someone's experience, however compelling, doesn't necessarily make it a story worthy of being published. Something has to happen, something has to change. I liked your train station piece a lot and it could become a piece of compelling fiction if the narrator was developed and came away from the experience with the drunk couple changed in some way, discover a truth, etc.
-------------------------------
readersguide - 2006-01-24 17:54:56
I always hate Margaret Atwood, generally speaking.
-------------------------------

add your comment:

your name:
your email:
your url:

back to the entry - Diaryland