[stylist] A Million Little Pieces is not creative nonfiction

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

And that is not what memoir is, and as already mentioned, Frey himself
initially intended to market his book as fiction based on truth.
Anything not true, such as A Million Little Pieces, is not memoir,
autobiography, etc. Had Frey stated that some info was based off of
others experiences, then he could have advertised the book as
nonfiction, or had he stated parts were conjecture, this too would be
permissible in memoir writing, but because he tried to market it as all
being organic to his life, his book can no longer be viewed as memoir.
If people think this is what memoir, or creative nonfiction is, they are
incorrect, and it's people like Frey that confuse readers about the
genre.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan

Message: 17
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 12:51:50 -0500
From: "Lynda Lambert" <llambert at zoominternet.net>
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] Creative nonfiction is not made-up material
Message-ID: <E365F801F9C94D5FA84DB99B30393936 at Lambert>
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OH, I should say, it was not based on lies.
He actually was an addict and most of the story was his personal journey
in 
addiction. He exaggerated some things, and he borrowed some things from
the 
lives of other addicts in order to present an inside view of addiction
and 
how a person tries to cope with it. He actually presented himself as
worse 
than he was, in some ways. Meaner and more criminal than it was - even 
though drug addiction is beyond the scope of anyone who has not been
there 
or been close to someone who faces this struggle.

When confronted with the exaggerations, he freely admitted it.  Of
course, 
it brought him even more 15 minutes of fame - which any author  would 
chrish - it means $$$ in the bank and lots more books coming through.

Lynda