We've seen one controversy-after-another in the world of memoirs. Over-and-over, we learn that the facts of the memoirs are not what we've been told. Lies, fabrications, flights of fancy, gigantic leaps, and mis-truths--it's all a bit disheartening (that is, if we really want to believe in the truthfulness of the tale). So, it seems fitting (in a month when we talk about <a href="http://classiclit.about.com/od/bannedliteratur1/a/aa_whatisban.htm">Banned Books</a>) that we revisit the genre!
What is a memoir? How true is it (of course, I realize that some writers would seek to re-create their own reality)? Does a writer (past or present) have the license to embellish (or "slant") the truth? As Emily Dickinson once wrote, "Tell all the Truth but tell it slant--" And, Laura Dietz writes: "What's the truth? Whatever the author says it is. Memoirs will get away with whatever they can."
With all that I've experience in the world of cancer in the last few years, I've read a number of memoirs (sometimes, those stories help us to realize that we are not alone in our circumstances). Of course, John Gunther's classic Death Be Not Proud is one of the most memorable classic memoirs. So, here's a question... Would you be okay with it if you learned that the life and death of the young boy in Gunther's memoir had been largely a figment of his imagination?
It wouldn't be the SAME story, of course. We are drawn to a young boy, who is struggling against the odds. We come to know the whole family. Gunther has given us a window into their lives: their joys and final sorrows. And, when my own family experienced some of the same incidents, I came to feel that there were others who could intimately understand my pain and fear--the daily struggles...
So, what's your opinion of a memoir? Should it be filled with fabricated facts (or fancies)? How truthful will your memoir be?
Comments
From what I understand, Mr. Frey’s book was not “largely fictional,” but that some parts were and some parts were embellished.
I understand and value the debate about this. The discussion is important to me as a writer who must rely, in part, on pieces not being completely clear in memory, and also wanted to keep from hurting or embarrasing others. But this should not be an either/or discussion. I don’t think that if a memoirist fictionalizes parts of her/his book, then it isn’t a “novel.”
A memoir should be a true story as the author saw it and experienced it. One should always keep in mind that if three sisters wrote about the same shared childhood it is likeley that they would come up with three different stories. Each one could still be truth. The rest of the novels are all part memoir as we put ourselves in everything we do and write. Somewhere in any story is a true event. But these must not be called memoirs. I think it is more exciting to wander what in a story might be real. It makes me “get to know” the author a little bit better. Fun.
I once presented a paper about the question of using Emily Bronte’s poetry as a kind of memoir of her life. It was really fascinating. People’s creative effusions do tell us a lot about their lives, but we have to be careful not to read our own ideas into the texts. The best approach, I think, is to examine what we know about the writer’s life from whatever sources we have (remember ALL sources are subjective in some sense) and analyse the interplay between the ‘facts’ and the writer’s creative output. Conclusions need to be tentative and qualified. In other words, they are just in the realm of interesting ideas and arguments, not hard facts.
Memoir means “from memory.” Can one “remember” something that did not factually occur and still retain the integrity of it being “from memory”? Absolutely. Can one knowingly fabricate something that did not factually occur and claim it as a recall? A recollection? A memory? I argue not. The matter being fabricated is not contemporaneous to the period or event being legitimately remembered, but only to the writing of it. As such, the fabrication has no legitimate bearing or consequence upon that period or event. It can only skewer and diminish the legitimacy of them, robbing them of their power to convey a hopefully unique insight both witnessed and corroborated by its sheer integrity alone.
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I have discovered from direct experience that mainstream book publishers have no qualms about publishing fiction and calling it Nonfiction. My wife’s late father was featured in two bestselling memoirs by Aline, Countess of Romanones. The memoirs were The Spy Wore Red and The Spy Went Dancing. The English historian, Nigel West, researched the two books and declared her spy books “should be regarded as fiction,” as I did in my book: Edmundo: From Chiapas, Mexico to Park Avenue.
Authors can say what they will in their memoir. But the publisher ought to have some respect for the truth and avoid what I call, consumer fraud.
I’m confident that many memoirs, especially from celebrities, are greatly enhanced at the insistance of publishers and editors. Too many readers demand to be entertained no matter that key facts have been invented. What happened in the case of James Frey is but the tip of the iceberg. Simply put, consumer fraud in the marketing of fiction as nonfiction has run amuck and the tradegy is that many book critics are complicit most readers don’t care.