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Truth, Fiction, and the Rosenbergs

New York Times article by Adam Liptak.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 22nd, 2006 at 4:03 pm and is filed under Culture Forum Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Truth, Fiction, and the Rosenbergs”

  1. says:
    January 24, 2006 at 1:25 am

    I am interested in Mr. Kushner’s comment about the recent controversy swirling around James Frey and Million Little Pieces. Mr. Kushner commented that there is an increased tolerance for lying and for confusing fact and fiction.
    I think that the reason the public is disunified in its response to the liberties that James Frey’s use – a response that Kushner characterizes as one that has ‘both provoked outrage and not’ is not because there is an increased leniency for lying. The members of the public who have not been outraged by the recent disclosure that portions of the book were not exactly nonfiction have supported Frey because of the larger message and theme of his book. These readers know that the contested aspects of Million LIttle Pieces are not crucial to the overall heroic story of a near death drug addict’s struggle to regain a relatively normal life.
    Therefore, I think that Kushner is misplaced in acquainted the public who have not been outraged by Frey’s book as being tolerant of lies.
    And, quite clearly, the other response to the disclosure- the outraged public as Kushner called them, reflects people’s abhorrance of the liberty Frey took in this nonfiction.

    I was surprised to learn that Frey initially marketed Million Little Pieces as a fictional book. Then, his book was picked up by Oprah coincidentally right after he re-classified it as nonfiction. However, I still recommend this book and am proud of Frey’s struggle and independent battle to reclaim his life, when death was a much simpler choice. James Frey’s memoir is distinctly different than an autobiography by a prominent political actor or a recount of a historical event. His human struggle transcends time and all of us on different levels can relate to internal battle. That is why I must disagree w/ Kushner.

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