Scandals involving authors of memoirs have raised questions about how much artistic license should be allowed in a purported work of nonfiction. By definition, nonfiction works are about facts and real events, but perception of real events can vary greatly depending on the point of view of the writer, especially an author recounting personal experience in the form of a memoir. Consideration of the reaction to two specific incidents involving narrative memoirs that were later proven to be largely, or wholly, untrue shows how much the repercussions can vary when the fallacies are revealed.

In 2008, writer Margaret Seltzer decided that the story of a mixed ethnicity, Native American foster child trying to survive the gang culture of South Central Los Angeles was a story that needed to be told. Unfortunately, she chose to recount that story in the form of a memoir, adopting the pseudonym Margaret B. Jones so that she could not readily be identified, to tell the tale in her book Love and Consequences. When it was revealed, by her sister, that she was actually white and grew up in a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles, Seltzer claimed that her desire was to give voice to legitimate concerns that were going unheard. This claim, though, ran counter to the persona she adopted for radio interviews while promoting the memoir, during which she chose to use a vernacular and carry herself in a way that she thought would lend authenticity to her story. In doing so, she did a disservice to those whose experiences she had appropriated, and within a week she suffered the consequences: all copies of the book were recalled by the publisher, and Seltzer has not had any published works since that time.

Prior to Seltzer, author James Frey had also experienced the highs and lows of writing a successful memoir that was not completely based in fact. Be-fore his tale of the dark depths of addiction and the winding road to recovery, A Million Little Pieces, landed him at the top of The New York Times best-seller list for fifteen weeks in 2005, Frey and his editor's notions of what should be considered a memoir were quite loose. Everything came tumbling down when Frey's book was exposed as containing a number of fabrications, and just as quickly as Frey rose to prominence, he became a media pariah. Frey claimed that he had never represented A Million Little Pieces as anything other than a memoir and that his embellishment of events was within the bounds of what is considered acceptable as a memoir within the literary world. His time in the media spotlight tends to belie his claim, as it saw him embrace the fraudulent persona he had created for himself in his book. In recent years, the view of the publishing world and the media toward Frey has softened, and he later returned to the best-seller list with his fictional work, Bright Shiny Morning.

1. While discussing memoirs, the author specifically chooses to refer to Frey in order to

A. argue that the media's response to Frey was too harsh
B. present an example of an author who experienced literary success after a significant scandal
C. focus on one of the more obscure memoir hoaxes in modern history
D. point out the malicious intent when an author decides to lie in a memoir
E. highlight the permanent damage that comes from going beyond the accepted bounds of the memoir genre



2. The primary purpose of the passage is to

A. criticize the consequences of the memoir genre being defined so loosely
B. cast doubt on the effectiveness of the repercussions faced by Seltzer and Frey
C. argue that both Seltzer and Frey were treated unfairly by the media
D. discuss the consequences to authors when memoirs are proven to be false
E. debate whether artistic license outweighs commitment to facts within the memoir genre



3. According to the passage, Seltzer's book can best be characterized as

A. self-serving
B. unpremeditated
C. authentic
D. spontaneous
E. authoritative



4. It can reasonably be inferred from the author's recounting of what happened to Seltzer and Frey that

A. they did not consciously seek to deceive their readers
B. both authors were at least partially responsible for the negative consequences that they faced
C. neither author ever experienced positive press after releasing their respective memoirs
D. authors in the memoir genre are more prone to deception than authors in other genres
E. They valued long-term financial success over journalistic integrity



5. According to the passage, Seltzer took all of the following steps to lend to the credibility of her memoir EXCEPT:

A. adopting a persona for her on-air interviews
B. setting the memoir in South Central Los Angeles
C. eliciting her family's cooperation
D. using the pseudonym Margaret B. Jones
E. changing the way she spoke during interview .



20. In the author's opinion, one major difference between the experiences of Seltzer and Frey is that

A. Seltzer lied with good intentions, while Frey lied purely for financial gain
B. Seltzer's bad press was less damaging than Frey's bad press
C. Seltzer deserved to never have another work published and Frey deserved his later success
D. Seltzer's family sought to damage her career, but Frey's family was very supportive
E. Seltzer's fabrication was quickly discovered and penalized, while Frey's fabrications took longer to be addressed