Thank you, James Frey
August 9th, 2008 | by Ben Hoare |
James Frey has been doing the rounds recently, promoting his new book.
But the journalists only want to discuss the controversy surrounding A Million Little Pieces. Presenting itself as autobiographical, and initially praised for its “honesty”, the narrative was later criticised when it emerged that parts of it were fabricated. The Smoking Gun’s telling of this story can be found here, but please remember that they are telling a story too - and, inside narrative, there is no absolute truth.
Journalists seem obsessed with the apparent “dishonesty” of Frey’s narrative, but the author insists factual truth is far less important than writing a good book. In a recent interview, he says:
Anyway, my readers weren’t bothered. The books continued to sell. (…)
Really, I’m only interested in making good art by whatever means. (…) Work that’s subversive, that breaks the rules. Work that moves people, makes them think differently about their lives.
Thank you, James Frey. At least somebody understands that the distinction between fiction and non-fiction is far more complicated than most people assume.
Stories cannot be absolutely true. Rather, they convey truth: Doctor Who, The Lion King, His Dark Materials, all convey truth about the human condition, but few would claim they were factually accurate (lions can’t sing).
It’s more important to tell a story people can believe in than one people can believe. So-called autobiography complicates this because of its claim to truth, but I agree with Frey that the story’s ability to move people is paramount.
The journalist interviewing Frey writes, “honest was one thing A Million Little Pieces wasn’t”, which seems to me to be an unfairly binary way of viewing honesty.
The most honest book I’ve read in recent years is Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, which is totally made up. Shriver was not a parent, and had no first-hand experience of the complicated emotions suffered by Eva Khatchadourian, when she wrote it. The book is honest because it faces up to something that is important, and speaks the words many mothers would be ashamed to speak, however true they are. It is a courageous novel.
Anyway, I love fictional autobiographies. I’ll tell you a bit more about that later.
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