#AboutABook
#memoir
@Eggs
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
The fake memoir that pissed off Oprah Winfrey. 😱
lil1inblue I had totally forgotten all about this controversy! 😨 3mo
dabbe @lil1inblue IKR? 🤩😂😱 3mo
vivastory I haven't read the book, but what stuck with me from interviews at the time was him saying that nobody would pick it up as a novel. I find that really interesting. 3mo
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Eggs I liked this book; read it fairly recently. Hardly ever watched Oprah. 3mo
Lesliereadsalot Loved this book when it came out and the sequel too. 3mo
dabbe @vivastory I do, too. I'm a much bigger lover of fiction than I am of nonfiction (though I love NF, too). 3mo
dabbe @Eggs Would you categorize it as a memoir? Quite a bit of it was embellished or not true. It makes me wonder where the line is between fiction/nonfiction ... a similar discussion occurred when I posted IN COLD BLOOD as #basedontruestory 3mo
Kitta Like @Eggs and @Lesliereadsalot I loved this, I found the sequel not as good but still entertaining. I was in a phase at the time of reading memoirs about disasters and drug addiction lol although I would have read it if it had been marketed as fiction or based on a true story. I feel like lying and marketing it as NF ruined his credibility though, he shouldn‘t have lied. It should have been fiction. 3mo
Lesliereadsalot @Kitta yes it definitely should‘ve been fiction but it wouldn‘t have slammed me the way it did as non fiction. Totally understand why Oprah was devastated to learn she‘d been lied to. I was shocked but even now I remember how the book made me feel when I read it, even knowing now that it was a lie. 3mo
Eggs @dabbe No on memoir…more like historical fiction. I haven‘t researched him, but if he was a tragic addict and embellished his experience , seems still like F. HF writers add/edit history all the time. 3mo
dabbe @Eggs @Kitta @Lesliereadsalot Labeling it as HF seems the best way to have gone, but one wouldn't have been as gobsmacked as you said, @Lesliereadsalot. I haven't heard much from him since, so I think this whole episode definitely had a negative impact on his career. 3mo
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so-so