Week Seven Prompt: Fake Memoirs

I read the article about fake memoirs and I was pretty amazed at the lengths people will go to to make money. Of course, we have all heard about these books that are presented as fact but later are proven as fiction but I really didn’t realize there were as many as what were listed in the article. One of the books, Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan, has always been one of my favorite books. I read it many years ago when it first came out for a book club. I remember, back then, it was merely confusing because it said it was fiction but it seemed so real and I didn’t know there was any controversy. In fact, that year, I gave the book to several people for Christmas. Everyone in our book club just went with the fact that it was realistic fiction. I believe there was a foreword or afterword that explained the situation but no one really questioned it. I had forgotten this element of the book as the years have passed and was surprised to see it on the list in the article.

I wonder a lot about the intention of these writers; are they doing it for fame and money? Literary status? If they wanted to write a good story, why not do just that and claim it as fiction? I understand better from the reader’s side; if you claim it to be true, it had better be true. That is why we are reading a “true story”; because we want something amazing and what makes it amazing is that it is true! I’m sure most of these “true story” readers are fiction fans as well and would probably like the book just as well if it were fiction. It’s just that one tiny element of truth that makes the book that much more interesting. And what makes us mad is when someone lies to us; and not a little one that slips out but a premeditated, bold-faced lie that took months or years to perfect.

Some of these untruths are a bit more acceptable than others though. The list includes some books, like Mutant Message, where the author, I believe, really is telling what they believe is the truth and it doesn’t really hurt anyone. I never understood how this book was hurting the aboriginals. Morgan simply relayed her time spent with them and conveyed how wonderful they are. However, there are others that step way over the line in my opinion. One of the best examples is portraying a holocaust survivor; how hurtful and disrespectful to all holocaust survivors. Herman Rosenblat, author of Angel At The Fence: The True Story of a Love That Survived, on the other hand, is in fact a Holocaust survivor and he only fabricated the love between himself and a young girl during the Holocaust who later got married. True, I agree he could’ve just written an awesome fictional love story and called it fiction but did he really fabricate something so wrong? Maybe I can forgive him more since he is a Holocaust survivor. But I think these fake memoirs have to be taken one at a time to assess the damage and then we can go from there.