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January 25, 2006
Was All That Brouhaha Good for Us?
Is it over yet, the Frey fray? I see that representatives and patients of the Hazelden Foundation are commenting now about the truthfulness of that part of A Million Little Pieces. But isn’t it over?
I haven’t commented on this before. But I’ve thought about it a great deal. We have two memoirs forthcoming in our Fall 2006 list, so there’s good reason to think.
What I see is just so much posturing amongst the media – including the Island publishing execs. So much signifying, when within the question there is so much that is absolute. It all seems so simple.
Here is the last sentence of my favorite author’s latest book (he turns 80 this year):
“All you have to know is whether you’re lying or whether you’re trying to tell the truth, you can’t afford to make a mistake about that distinction any longer . . .” —John Berger, Here Is Where We Meet
The closing ellipsis is his.
I’m convinced that no one knows more of the human heart than does John Berger. (That’s why I’m trying so hard to have him read — and blurb — one of our forthcoming novels — a historical novel about real people.)
Within the roar raised against James Frey (so far), I may have admired most Mary Karr’s (NYT) position. Her empowering assertion is that the Klieg Light of truth that Frey should have turned upon himself as any true memoirist would have done is the same Klieg Light that the media has turned upon his What-Do-I-Do-Now face.
In contrast, perhaps most unsettling to me was Clyde Haberman’s sarcastic assertion on the NYT op-ed page on January 17. To wit: “So a column is out [of the question]. But why not a book? A book is the best way to get at what some are calling ‘the essential truth,’ no matter what the facts.”
Do any of us still believe that Truth is most dear and near among journalists? Do any of us believe that the authors of books are more cavalier about historic truth, political accuracy, personal accountability . . . truth?
If we did think that, then why would we all be so vocal about the need for Frey to be pilloried?
No. None of us who publish from conviction believe that truth doesn’t matter. None of us who read in order to know, to understand, and to feel believe it either.
On the contrary, if there are editors and publishers amongst us who so devalue value, then they are not the folks to consort with. To a great extent, that’s why Greg and I publish independently.
But enough. Here is what I would say: There is reason to take heart from the plight of James Frey.
I’ve wondered how much of the attention received by his lies has arisen only because A Million Little Pieces was an “Oprah’s Book Club” selection. I mean, there have been many challenged “memoirs” in recent years. We’ve seen them cataloged over the past couple of weeks. So why has the media focused on Frey’s untruths?
Perhaps some of the energy in this vilification has resulted from resentment among opinion-makers and publishers — resentment that so great a percentage of the reading public seems to read only what Ms. Winfrey tells them to read. The power she has so fully disempowers publishers, especially independent, off-the-Island publishers. . . .
Of course, there was more reason for the media to enter the Frey fray when Ms. Winfrey phoned the Larry King Show to declare that the truth of Frey’s “memoir” is irrelevant to its affect. But already the fray was on. That, of course, is why he was on Larry King to begin with.
Ms. Winfey isn’t the point. This isn’t about Oprah.
Besides, she’s right. That’s what television is about, the irrelevance of truth. We don’t expect or require broadcast Truth anymore. The boundless success of political spin and “Reality TV” have both made that abundantly clear. Ms. Winfrey was risking nothing in taking that empirically and ethically indefensible position.
Let me say it again: She’s right.
To the people Ms. Winfrey addresses from her set, such things as Truth don’t matter. It’s what feels good in their hearts that counts. Every afternoon. To some extent, this is true of all who seek information day-to-day from television or radio broadcasts. Ms. Winfrey is a daytime television star, after all. We so often forget that, don’t we?
Economic power as far-reaching as hers can make even a publisher forget that.
But James Frey and Oprah notwithstanding, folks will either continue to read memoirs or they will move to the next literary genre that best fits the historic moment. Mysteries have their periods in the turning wheel of history. So do spy novels. So, apparently, do mystical global puzzle books. And comic books.
And King Kong remakes.
So do quiet but true literary novels.
What heartens in the Frey fray is that given all the smoke and ash it has raised, it’s clear that — somehow, surprisingly — books do still matter.
Fred Ramey
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