{truth and fiction in art and non}

This makes for an interesting afternoon wonderment about the nature of truth in writing and where lines get drawn when profits are on the line... would these books ever have been published if they stuck to the facts? if they were positioned as fiction, which they apparently, largely, are? how much do the lies affect the art, the craft, of what was written?

JT Leroy: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/09/books/09book.html?emc=eta1

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0104061jamesfrey1.html

Thanks to Oprah Winfrey, author James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces" has sat atop best-seller lists since the TV star picked the nonfiction memoir for her powerful book club four months ago. Winfreyhas called Frey's book, which chronicles his years as an alcoholic, drug addict, and criminal,"gut-wrenching" and "so real." Well, not exactly. A six-week investigation has determined that Frey'sblockbuster is filled with fabrications, falsehoods, and other fakery. In a related note, a "rattled" Frey has lawyered up and is threatening to sue us for millions.

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