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December 3, 2008 2:45:53 PM CST


fake memoirs

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'Realish' Sedaris Book Skirts Memoir Scrutiny

Genre 'the last place you’d expect to find the truth,' humorist says

(Newser) - With his new book of nonfiction essays, Engulfed in Flames , David Sedaris finds himself engulfed in questions of truth and accuracy. In America, the recent explosion of memoirs has been followed with one scandal after another, prompting more scrutiny of the humorist’s work. “I do think Sedaris exaggerates too much for a writer using a nonfiction label," a New Republic writer argued last year. More »

More about:  book literature memoir humor writer nonfiction books fake memoirs

 How to Fake a Memoir 

Embellish the story without getting caught, Slate scribe suggests

(Newser) - Misha Defonseca's memoir left a sticky trail of lies about escaping Nazis and living with wolves. (It turns out wolf saliva isn't an antiseptic.) Tired of careless fabricators, Slate writes a how-to for aspiring fakers: Keep it vague. Dates are verifiable—"awhile" is not. Watch out for tattling siblings. Revenge can be dirty, especially if you kill them off in your faux memoir (as Margaret Seltzer recently discovered). Check your paper trail. That goes for elementary school registers, which gave away Defonseca's real whereabouts. More »

More about:  memoir humor author James Frey Margaret Seltzer fake memoirs

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