Blog Post #5: Truth In Memoir

To be non-fiction, a book has to be almost completely true. For me, this means that there are not 100% fictitious characters in the story and there are not events in the story that are fabricated. If it's made up and not true, it's fiction. That's what fiction means. Half-truths are at times okay if they don't offend anyone. In Frey's "memoir" he is somehow involved in an accident that resulted in a young girl's death. In reality, he was not involved in it whatsoever, he just heard about it. That particular half-truth is not passable because that could hurt the feelings of those close to that young girl. They were the ones affected by it, not him. I don't think lines between genres matter at all. The only thing that really matters is the honesty of the author. Authors should not be able to write an entirely made up story and call it a memoir because it "kind of" happened around them. A novel is a made up story. A memoir is a recalling of someone's life and life events that truly happened. Usually, if I'm reading a book or watching a movie that is based on a true story, my emotions are more intense because I think that it really happened. The sad parts are way sadder and the happy parts are way happier when you think it's reality. So, if authors make up something that didn't happen and say that it's a memoir, that's blatantly deceiving the readers.