Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Memoirs, the New Novels


Geez, what are writers thinking? A fake memoir of the Holocaust? Seriously?! That's not good, people. A fake memoir about gang life in Los Angeles? Yikes. The famed James Frey book, a fictionalized account of drug abuse? That's not good either. Slushpile takes a look at this troubling new genre and the LA Times gives a full list of memorable literary hoaxes including a Native American who wasn't, an HIV-positive former drug addict who wasn't and a covert agent for Britain's Special Air Services in Afghanistan, who, well, wasn't.

1 comment:

Nic said...

You'd think if the authors were truly happy with their work they would just market the books as fictional memoirs. I currently reading "Born Twice" by Giuseppe Pontiggia, a book I found as a direct result of this blog (posting from 12/19/07... thanks by the way). It's written in the style of a memoir, but at no point ever claims to be an account of actual events. Just sayin' is all... :-D