Storycraft: The Complete Guide to Writing Narrative Nonfiction (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)

by Jack R. Hart

The issue came to a head after the 2003 publication of James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, a cliché-ridden memoir that supposedly recounted Frey’s struggles with alcoholism and addiction. In 2006 the book earned an endorsement from Oprah Winfrey and sold 3 million copies. Then “The Smoking Gun,” a truth-squading Web site, exposed it as a fraud. At first Frey’s publisher, Doubleday, trotted out the idea of “emotional truth.” “Recent accusations . . . notwithstanding,” read a news release, “the power of the overall reading experience is such that the book remains a deeply inspiring and redemptive story for millions of readers.” Frey himself took refuge in the same argument, telling Larry King that he “stands by the book as the essential truth of my life.” Oprah herself defended the book as valuable regardless of the factual details. But A Million Little Pieces contained virtually no truth, emotional or otherwise. Frey eventually admitted he’d written it as a novel that was rejected by seventeen publishers before Doubleday’s Nan Talese said she’d publish it if he recast it as a memoir. Frey and Talese had reached the bottom of an ethical slippery slope, where the only difference between a novel and memoir, it appeared, was that a memoir sold better. “The Smoking Gun’s” expose sparked a national uproar. Oprah, feeling the heat, retreated from her earlier defense and invited Frey back onto her show, where she savaged him because he had “betrayed millions of readers.” Random H...