Vanity Fair’s piece on James Frey, the first true interview since the Million Little Pieces saga two years ago, makes for a great read. The narrative of Frey changing from a reluctant participant in the sham into a caricature of himself is particularly provoking:
Under the klieg lights of celebrity, he embraced the badass role he had written for himself. He now began standing by his book as straight nonfiction. He emphasized his honesty, saying on Oprah in October 2005, “If I was going to write a book that was true, and I was going to write a book that was honest, then I was going to have to write about myself in very negative ways.”
And a great quote by Normal Mailer on memiors:
“That’s why a writer writes his memoir, to tell a lie and create an ideal self. Everything I’ve ever written is memoir, you know, is an inflated vision of the ideal Platonic self.”