Prompt 7
When I read the article A Million Little Lies: Exposing James Frey's
Fiction Addiction, my jaw dropped. Not only because I could not believe
that someone could be so messed up in the head as James Frey, but the fact that
it happened in the town that I previously lived fifteen minutes away from for
eleven years!
St. Joseph, Michigan is a tourist town,
bringing in revenue from the different beaches, various fudge and ice cream shops,
and other attractions and events each summer. When the lake is not frozen and
the roads are not under two feet of snow, it is generally a great vacation spot. Tourists watch the vivid sunset every evening on docks provided by
the city, and some even take walks out onto the piers. The lake itself changes
colors from day to day, ranging in colors from dark grey and denim blue to a jade
green. Storms could be seen rolling in from Chicago during the summer, and
sometimes one cannot tell when the lake ends and the sky begins, on a cloudless
day. Students are not allowed to go to school until after Labor Day because of the
tourist season. The town is pretty small, and everyone seems to know everyone
else. To use the cliché, “I would not think anything like that would happen
there.” I have not seen or heard anything about this book or the events that
took place in St. Joseph, Michigan, nor did anyone I know bring it up in
conversation when I lived in Stevensville or worked in the library at Berrien
Springs. The article even mentioned roads I have traveled on, so I know where
the location of the accident took place.
The article (2006) said, “Frey appears to
have fictionalized his past to propel and sweeten the book's already
melodramatic narrative and help convince readers of his malevolence” (6). A
memoir of this nature maybe should not be cataloged as a memoir, but rather Psychological
Suspense. In the book The Readers’
Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction, by Joyce Saricks (2009), she states, “These
are books that play with our minds, that create a frisson of unease, that blend
the creepiness generated by the Horror genre with the tension inherent in Suspense.
These are stories that appeal to a range of readers- and filmmakers- and don’t
fit easily in any related genre into which we try to slot them” (229). My
question is, why would anyone want to portray himself or herself as a dangerous
felon, permanently damaging their own reputation? Is it because everyone lives
such mundane lives, or are adrenaline junkies, that they rush to write- and read -this sort
of book?
I know fake news is definitely a prominent issue in today's society, but
I have never heard of fake memoirs. Oprah generally brings authors onstage she
knows will become successful after her interview, so I wonder what her reaction
was when she realized that James Frey was a phony? Clearly, she rallied well, but
it would make anyone think twice and to really take a look at authors’ backgrounds
and legitimacy of their work before cataloging them as nonfiction.
Works Cited
Saricks, J. (2009). The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. Chicago: ALA.
Smoking Gun. (2006). A Million Little Lies: Exposing James Frey’s fiction addiction. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/million-little-lies.
I had a strong reaction to this story as well. I was aware of the controversy when it happened, but didn't pay much attention to it. Instinctively I knew this guy and his phony story for what it was, a wanna be bad boy who sensationalized the real tragedy of drug abuse and related self-destruction to exploit people's interest in it. I said in my blog post that I shrugged and rolled my eyes, because it doesn't take much to surprise me, the lengths people will go for money and attention, but it really is despicable to lie about it and sensationalize the whole thing when so many suffer from it. You probably hadn't heard anything about the story when you lived there because he made so much of it up! By the way, really really nice description of the lake, we might get up there this summer, our family really enjoys visiting up there.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ricke! That's neat you often visit up there. It is a great place to take a vacation in the summer. In the winter, there aren't as many tourists, but the lake always looks neat, because of the frozen whitecaps. I can't swim and can only stay outside 10 minutes without getting burned, so I didn't go as much as I should have, hahaha.
DeleteI definitely agree with you, that it's terrible that he wanted to sensationalize the tragedy because he was bored with his own life. I felt awful for the families who had to relive it when the book was debuted on Oprah.
Its always interesting to have a controversy spring up around something you know incredibly well, like your hometown! I agree that this would have been much better marketed as fiction, but I think the publisher was crafty, though disingenuous, in passing this story off as memoir. I have a feeling that if this work was categorized as fiction it would have been looked over quickly!
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point, Dustin! His book probably would have been looked over if it had been marketed truthfully- as fiction. Crafty was a good word to sum it up, too.
DeleteGreat response! I want to visit your town now, you have a way with words. You raised some many great points as well. Full points!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Professor Cataldi! St. Joseph really is a great vacation spot. There are several beaches, and some people are really into collecting beach glass! There are also things you can do along the bluff- there is a car show and an antiques show during the summer. I miss it already- I just moved back to Fort Wayne four weeks ago!
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