Lies ruin lives
I'm fascinated and repulsed by liars, especially in the literary world, where it seems doubtful any memoir by anyone who isn't a bona fide celebrity will ever again see the light of day. I say that in reaction to a story tonight in the New York Times about yet another pathological liar who passed off pure fiction as the honest-to-God story of her own life.
This one is almost comical. Almost. Affluent white girl from Sherman Oaks, Calif., writes a "memoir" in which she claims to be a half-white, half-Native American girl who ran with gangs and sold drugs in South Central Los Angeles. It was published by Riverhead Books, a reputable publisher, and received glowing reviews in the New York Times and elsewhere. Here's an interview with the purported memoirist, Margaret B. Jones, on her publisher's website, while it lasts. Her older sister saw a story about her and dimed her out, and last night Margaret Seltzer, the real author, confessed that Margaret B. Jones and "Love and Consequences" were pure fiction. She brings to mind James Frey, author of "A Million Little Pieces," another purported "harrowing" memoir.
And therein lies part of the problem. The literary world wants ever more screwed-up lives in its memoirs. Just having an interesting life, full of lively characters and well-told, is not enough anymore. I was told this myself when, three years ago, I was suddenly besotted with the idea of writing about my early journalism career. I thought my story, of moving from a midwestern town known for its Tulip Festival, to my first journalism job in hard-boiled Shamokin, Pa., at least had some interesting possibilities. Especially when I threw in the Centralia mine fire, the central event of my early life as a journalist. A literary agent I knew practically laughed in my face. She asked me if I had abusive parents, or had some other horrible aspect to my childhood. Told that I didn't, she wouldn't even look at my sample chapters.
What Seltzer did is far from a victimless crime. Her editor, for all her foolishness in not ordering a fact check on the story, seems to have been completely bamboozled. She wasn't in on the scam, but her career will likely be destroyed anyway. Lies are like that. People believe them, and their own lives fall apart. Seltzer says she's sorry. Big deal.