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“Truth” and Artistic License

Reading a piece of fiction, even a very realistic-seeming one, the reader doesn’t skill workshop
automatically ask, “Did this really happen?” When reading a narrative or memoir,
however, the reader not only asks this question regularly, but also expects that the
answer is “yes.” This is a key distinction between narrative and fiction: the reader /
assumes the events in a narrative to be true. That is part of a narrative’s power. That
said, it is almost impossible to accurately recount every detail of an event, especially
one that occurred many years earlier. Who really can recall exactly what color shirt you
wore or the exact words that someone used when speaking to you?
Readers of narratives and memoir understand this and tolerate a certain amount Essential Elements of Narrative
of artistic license, which occurs when a writer may embellish or add detail to assist
readers in connecting with the story. Where is the line between fiction and the truth
of a narrative? How broad or fine is that line? It is really difficult to say, though most
writers strive for authenticity in their narratives and generally resist straining the
believability of their readers. Some of the events in “Mother’s Tongue” took place
many years before Autman published the story, and while he probably took liberties
with some details — maybe the opening took place at a K-mart instead of a Target,
for example — his piece feels authentic, even though we as readers can never
really know for sure if the events happened in the way he describes. As readers of
narratives, we need to have trust and faith in the writer. If that trust is lost because
the writer willfully misleads readers by presenting fiction as truth, the narrative loses
its power.
In 2006, the website Smoking Gun published an article called “A Million Little Lies:
Exposing James Frey’s Fiction Addiction,” which proved that several aspects of the
best-selling memoir A Million Little Pieces by James Frey were fabricated. In particular,
the article revealed that Frey claimed to have spent 87 days in jail, when in fact he had
only spent a few hours there.
Talk show host Oprah Winfrey, who had promoted the book extensively, had Frey
on her show shortly after the article came out. Here are a couple of excerpts from their
conversation:
Winfrey: James Frey is here and I have to say it is difficult for me to talk to you because
I feel really duped. Why did you lie? Why did you have to lie about the time you spent in
jail? Why did you do that?
Frey: I think one of the coping mechanisms I developed was sort of this image of myself
that was greater, probably, than — not probably — that was greater than what I actually
was. In order to get through the experience of the addiction, I thought of myself as being
tougher than I was and badder than I was — and it helped me cope. When I was writing
the book . . . instead of being as introspective as I should have been, I clung to that
image.

Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample. 139
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.

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