First the Holocaust memoir Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years is outed as a work of fiction. Now Margaret Seltzer's memoir Love and Consequences is getting the same treatment.
With Misha, the true-life tale of a girl who "walks from Belgium to Ukraine, sneaks into and out of the Warsaw Ghetto, and stabs to death a Nazi rapist who attacks her—all between ages 7 and 11" might have caught some suspicion, and rightly so.
But Love, what with its heart-warming tale about a "half-white, half-Native American girl growing up in South-Central Los Angeles as a foster child among gang-bangers, running drugs for the Bloods," fooled even the critics (though Times book critic Michiko Kakutani believed some passages "can feel self-consciously novelistic at times," while Entertainment Weekly's Vanessa Juarez said ""readers may wonder if Jones embellishes the dialogue").
What should be a huge stain on Seltzer (writing under the name "Margaret Jones") and her publisher, Penguin, though, actually translates over to an embarrassment for the New York Times. In reporting the story, the paper acknowledges Seltzer's editor Sarah McGrath is the daughter of Charles McGrath, a "writer at large" for the paper; they did not mention Charles' eight-year tenure as editor of the paper's Book Review, and thus the potential for all sorts of conflicts of interest.
No matter though. All copes of Love & Consequences are being pulled from store shelves, where it hit on Feb. 28, and the book tour has been canceled. Too bad, too, since Seltzer would have likely gotten away with her fable a bit longer, had she never appeared in the House & Home section of, ahem, the New York Times, where she was photographed with her daughter Rya, and then seen by older sis Cyndi Hoffman, who promptly called Penguin imprint Riverhead to expose her. As all bitchy older sisters are wont to do.
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The NPR interview with this woman was ridiculous, first of all she sounds like an affluent bleeding heart liberal white woman with a fake Southern accent (in LA?!) Nevermind whether the novel is fake or true she's simply a terrble writer, the melodrama, it's as if she wrote her tale directly from a stereotypical DONT BE A MENACE TO SOCIETY WHILE DRINKING YOUR JUICE W/ YOUR BOYZ IN THE HOOD 90's gansta rap film. She's not even a psychologist or sociologist in her perspective, b'c everything about the story is a tale about her, her drug-running, her loss of innocence, her lack of family. How about the real ppl she exploits as a plot device for her story. Can we get a memoire for or about them? splashed on NPR for a hr no less!
this is sad. i just read about her in the N&O in raleigh and was excited to buy the book. then ONE day later for us down here, the article that it's a fake was in the N&O. i gasped when i got the paper this morning. i couldn't believe it. i read james frey and am still happy i did. but to hear that this number of people are either plagiarizing (kashva something) or just making it up or rrreeaaalllyyy exaggerating their circumstances is very sad. makes you wonder if past authors from long ago even maybe did this and were never caught. why did she feel the need to do this? because she WAS privileged and was bored with her life, had a child, her life wasn't going where she thought it would considering her advantages, and made up this story. who knows. what a shame though. this is getting old though. why do these publishers/agents do NO fact checking whatsoever? i mean none. they invest all this money into these writers with ZERO fact checking. what if frank mccourt's stories were false? well, just make sure he lived in ireland, struggled in nyc..which i'm sure he did. CHECK THESE PEOPLE OUT!!! DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What is all the buzz about? This just in: Authorities form opinion that the Death of Socrates as told by Plato has been considered by noted paleo-critics a fabrication. Scholars are burning classic books as we type.
If it is entertaining who cares?
The sister sure comes off like a weenee though.
"In reporting the story, the paper acknowledges Seltzer’s editor Sarah McGrath is the daughter of Charles McGrath, a “writer at large†for the paper; they did not mention Charles’ eight-year tenure as editor of the paper’s Book Review, and thus the potential for all sorts of conflicts of interest."
So the NY TImes is helping to line the pockets of daughters of their STAFF, and allowing their paper to be used as free publicity and promotion for their EMPLOYEE'S FAMILY'S BUSINESS INTERESTS!
How many other Times employees's relatives were allowed to use the paper to promote their financial interests? With no disclosure by the New York Times?
Meanwhile, of course, the Times points a finger at "bad evil big Business."
Looks like the Times is running its own capitalist three card monte game!
Haha, check out the Fake Memoir-o-Tron at 23/6.Pretty,pretty good: http://www.236.com/news/2008/0.....1_4955.php
So what? It is a book. You like it or not. It is fiction. Jane Austen's was fiction. It is all fiction.