Pants on fire

So I heard part of the Today Show while I was cleaning the house before the kids arrived, and all talk turned to Oprah's most recent interview with James Frey. Everyone was all, "Oprah ripped him a new one!!! It was a bloodbath!!!" Now because I also caught a few minutes of Access Hollywood last night, I'd seen some of the interview. It was pretty ugly--she got all supercilious and called him a liar and he got all cagey and defensive. It was like watching a wrestling match between a heavyweight champ and some kid from the local junior high--Frey got clobbered.

I'm still a little confused on why this is such a newsworthy event.

Okay, it's true that Frey embellished some details in his memoir. It's also true that memoirs are supposed to be nonfiction. However, they're also personal narratives, which means they're completely subjective and edited for maximum effect. When I read Frey's book over Christmas, it never occurred to me to take him at his word. It's not because I'm cynical or a supersleuth, either--it's that the book is one dude's account of some really shitty times in his life. It doesn't make any difference to me that he changed some details and embellished others; the book itself is based on factual events, and that's the whole point of a memoir.