I caught this story on the news this morning, about how Oprah Winfrey recommended the book A Million Little Pieces and later found out it has some rather significant stretches of the truth. She called the author to task on her show, but later decided that stretching a story is okay if the end result is positive, meaning I think that the overall message of how drugs can mess you up is worth the deception.

Fine, but make it fiction, will yah?

Here's a story link: Oprah Duped, Ticked, Recants

And here's an opinion piece on truth/lies that addresses this incident: Is It OK To Lie?

Question for debate:

At what point should a publisher declare that a book is fiction and not non-fiction?

My take is that if any factual part of a book is outright wrong, such as how long one spends in jail, that heads into fiction. Making up junk in non-fiction is lazy writing. It's also asking to be exposed like this author was, and discredits any future work. Once a liar always a liar, eh?

There's a simple way around this. Write fiction and base it on reality. Make it believable and construct it artfully to leave emotional impact.

Curiosity question:

Would you buy the book A Million Little Pieces knowing that parts of it are fabricated?

At what point should a publisher declare that a book is fiction and not non-fiction?

I agree with you, AM. It's fine to compose a work of fiction based somewhat in reality, but not the other way around and entitle it a "personal nonfictional memoir". Obviously this person thought that he would sell more books this way, so to answer your second question....

'Would you buy the book A Million Little Pieces knowing that parts of it are fabricated? H-E double toothpicks no. I would be more forgiving if he embellished an experience as a Holocaust survivor or something, but according to what I've heard this is a book about a spoiled rich kid with a severe alcoholism/crack addiction, who has his parents pay for a stay at an exclusive clinic, and comes out a semi-repaired still spoiled, rich jerk. Of course, from that standpoint, his deception isn't exactly surprising. Perhaps he will write a book about that. No thanks.

Mrs. P,

Just got an update. Oprah has clarified that she still does not think that fibbing in non-fiction is okay and that she got duped, made a mistake, etc. and onward. The publisher has offered to reimburse readers of the book but has also stated that publishers don't fact check non-fiction. Yep, it's up to the author to get the story right, isn't it, and it's up to others to call the author on fabrications, which happened.

I'm okay with people embellishing a story up to a point, but only if it adds to the dramatic effect that's already there. In other words, say I spend some time in jail for whatever offense and I write about a particularly nasty guard in a way that's colored by my perception, being the prisoner and all. That's to be expected in a memoir or autobio work, and it's up to the reader to use due caution, skepticism, and so on. However, if no guard was ever nasty, that's a baldfaced scummy lie worthy of a libel/slander suit. If I only spent a few hours in jail instead of months, that is a fabrication worthy of real prison time, or maybe a few years community service would be more appropriate. Yep, cracking book spines at the library, that would work. Make them all good non-fiction titles too.