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Gang Memoir the Latest Among Literary Fakes
by
findingDulcinea Staff
When Margaret Seltzer’s sister saw a newspaper profile of purported former gang member “Margaret Jones,” a fraud was unmasked. But should readers be disappointed?
30-Second Summary
“Love and Consequences” was marketed as the memoir of a gang survivor named Margaret B. Jones. Reviewers were impressed, though the critic at Entertainment Weekly observed that “readers may wonder if Jones embellishes the dialogue.”
Seltzer defends her decision to lie. She said the story needed to be told and was based on accounts of real experiences. “I just felt that there was good that I could do and there was no other way that someone would listen to it,” she said.
The faux memoir has prompted a debate in the publishing industry. While some argue that a book should be valued for its literary merit before factual accuracy, others suggest that publishers have a responsibility to be honest with their audience.
Such fabrications have a long history in the book business. In the late 18th century, English poet Thomas Chatterton passed his own work off as the verse of medieval “secular priest” Thomas Rowley. Chatterton despaired when he was unable to sell poems under his own name and, age 17, he took his own life.
More recently, James Frey was revealed to have duped readers, his patron Oprah Winfrey among them, with his fictionalized memoir “A Million Little Pieces.” And just a week before Seltzer’s memoir was exposed as a fake, author Misha Defonseca, whose real name is Monique De Wael, issued a statement admitting that the Holocaust memoir she published 11 years ago is fiction.
De Wael’s book, “Surviving with Wolves,” has just been turned into a film. The author continues to defend her work. “Ever since I can remember, I felt Jewish," said De Wael, who was born and raised a Catholic.
Seltzer defends her decision to lie. She said the story needed to be told and was based on accounts of real experiences. “I just felt that there was good that I could do and there was no other way that someone would listen to it,” she said.
The faux memoir has prompted a debate in the publishing industry. While some argue that a book should be valued for its literary merit before factual accuracy, others suggest that publishers have a responsibility to be honest with their audience.
Such fabrications have a long history in the book business. In the late 18th century, English poet Thomas Chatterton passed his own work off as the verse of medieval “secular priest” Thomas Rowley. Chatterton despaired when he was unable to sell poems under his own name and, age 17, he took his own life.
More recently, James Frey was revealed to have duped readers, his patron Oprah Winfrey among them, with his fictionalized memoir “A Million Little Pieces.” And just a week before Seltzer’s memoir was exposed as a fake, author Misha Defonseca, whose real name is Monique De Wael, issued a statement admitting that the Holocaust memoir she published 11 years ago is fiction.
De Wael’s book, “Surviving with Wolves,” has just been turned into a film. The author continues to defend her work. “Ever since I can remember, I felt Jewish," said De Wael, who was born and raised a Catholic.
Headline Link: ‘Gang Memoir, Turning Page, Is Pure Fiction’
One week after The New York Times published a glowing review of Margaret B. Jones’ gang memoir “Love and Consequences,” it reported that the author’s real name was Margaret Seltzer, and that the entire story is fiction. Seltzer admitted that the book is based on people she met while working to fight Los Angeles gang violence. Sarah McGrath, her editor at Riverhead Books, stated that Seltzer could have told the truth and still sold her book. Seltzer was exposed by her sister, who read an earlier New York Times piece about “Margaret B. Jones.” The Times also reported that she made up a foundation that she claimed aided urban teens.
Source: The New York Times
Background Links: Entertainment Weekly and Sarah McGrath
Entertainment Weekly’s review of “Love and Consequences” praised the book as “a powerful story of resilience and unconditional love,” but speculated that “readers may wonder if Jones embellishes the dialogue.”
Source: Entertainment Weekly
Seltzer’s editor Sarah McGrath paid $900,000 in 2005 for a book only to have the publisher Scribner void the contract the following year because of “plagiarism and fabrications.” According to Publisher’s Weekly, book deals often fall apart, and “McGrath is likely one of many editors who have had several brushes with potential hoaxers.”
Source: Publisher’s Weekly
Opinions & Analysis: The value of telling stories
Susan Salter Reynolds reviewed the book for the Los Angeles Times and suggests that “something is going on here, more interesting than the fact that we can all be fooled.” She questions readers’ need to believe that everything they read is true, and argues that although Seltzer was never in a gang, something legitimate in her history made her empathetic to the tribulations of gang members.
Source: LA Times Blog
MediaBistro’s Galley Cat blog argues that publishers have a responsibility to their readers to deliver what they claim to be selling, even if fact checking non-fiction writers compromises the author-editor relationship. Author Jennifer Weiner is quoted as saying, “If I were a big-deal editor, I think I'd be a little more worried about the author-reader relationship, as in, you're selling the reader something that says 'true story' on the cover.” The blog also criticizes reviewers who have chosen to stand by the book on the grounds of literary merit.
Source: MediaBistro
Related Topics: De Wael and Frey
A week before Seltzer’s memoir was exposed as a fake, author Misha Defonseca, whose real name is Monique De Wael, issued a statement admitting that the Holocaust memoir she published 11 years ago was fiction. De Wael insists that she identifies with the story she told in “Surviving with Wolves,” which has just been turned into a film. “Ever since I can remember, I felt Jewish," said the author, who was born and raised a Catholic.
Source: The Daily Telegraph
The Smoking Gun spent six weeks investigating Frey and revealed numerous falsehoods in his enormously popular memoir “A Million Little Pieces.” Not only is much of the book fabricated, Frey stood by his deceptions in numerous interviews after its publication. Keeping up the lie was essential for Frey. The Smoking Gun says that if the book “was fictional, just some overheated stories of woe, heartache, and debauchery cooked up by a wannabe author,” it would have had a slim chance of publication.
Source: The Smoking Gun
When “A Million Little Pieces” was exposed as fiction, Oprah Winfrey, who had touted the book and Frey on her show, berated him in a televised interview. A transcript with photos is available on her site.
Source: The Oprah Winfrey Show
Historical Context: Chatterton, the ‘Hitler Diaries’ and Clifford Irving
In 1770, a talented young writer named Thomas Chatteron claimed to have discovered verse written by a 15th-century monk. He was able to sell them to a Bristol lawyer and continued to have success with more work written by the fabricated Thomas Rowley. Unfortunately, when he tried to sell work under his own name, he was met with consistent rejection. Disheartened, his poisoned himself at age 17, after which he experienced tremendous posthumous success.
Source: The Museum of Hoaxes
The now infamous “Hitler Diaries” were discovered in 1983 and shocked the world by portraying a kinder, more likable Hitler. Although the diaries were carefully examined and matched Hitler’s handwriting samples, they were found to be fakes before they were published.
Source: The Crime Library
When Clifford Irving was found guilty of forging the biography of reclusive millionaire Howard Hughes, the public delighted in every phrase of the unraveling tale, according to Time magazine. Irving seemed to relish in the drama, telling a Times reporter, “You haven't seen the bottom line yet. There is going to be some big news breaking. So be careful." Irving had plagiarized the work of a ghostwriter named James Phelan. Critics noted that Irving’s work was clearly copied, but also of far better quality.
Source: Time
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