FOLKS SAY there's no such thing as being a little bit pregnant, but it appears that memoirs can be more than a little bit fictional. James Frey admits as much in his defense of "A Million Little Pieces," an Oprah-endorsed description of his life as a criminal, alcoholic and drug addict.An investigation by "The Smoking Gun" website has shot holes in Frey's account, exposing him to be more Fat Lie than Tough Guy. Frey attributes the distance between his dramatic, bestselling narrative and his verifiable life to the failures of an addled memory and, more to the point, to the slippery standards of memoir. During a phone call to Larry King, Oprah stood by her man but challenged book editors to be clearer about what they deliver to her under the rubric of "memoir." It's true that all memoirs exist on a spectrum that stretches from accurate journalism to fact-laced fantasy. Oprah is on the right track, so I offer this solution to America's memoir dilemma, one I've adapted from the entertainment industry. We need labels. Each memoir should be marked with a ratings code that describes just how well the story adheres to what most of us would recognize as practical truth...More of this article...Search Google News for more quotes by Roy Peter Clark...
