3/15/2008

Oh Onion

3/07/2008

New Blogger/Fact v. Fiction


Hey Booksoupers,
I'm Julia and I'm the new blog mistress. This week I'm here to talk to you about fact v. fiction. Now here at Booksoup, we do love a blurred line between fact and fiction. I'm sure by now you've all heard of Margaret B. Jones' book "Love and Consequences" and the fact that she made it all up. I get that some people might be mad because she tried to pass it off as a memoir, but if it's truly a good story then what does it matter? Does it really matter if what we read, when it comes to memoir, is fact or fiction?

And isn't the very nature of memoir that it is of the fickle mistress known as memory? How do we know what happened, what has been exaggerated, what is misremembered as something bigger or different than what actually happened? The truth is, we don't. It is my proposal that we, as a book reading group, should start to view memoir with a bit less emphasis on what actually happened, and start to view it as a journey, as you would view any work of fiction. Let's stop judging it for it's reality and start judging the storytelling ability. Let's embrace "A Million Little Pieces" and "Love and Consequences" for what they are and may very well hold up as being, good stories.

Peace and Love,
Julia