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A Million Little Pieces ... and the Truth

Truth, it is said, is stranger than fiction. But what happens when Truth becomes fiction?

This is the question revolving around the controversy of James Frey's runaway bestseller memoir A Million Little Pieces (made famous by being a top pick for Oprah's book club). It's sold over 3.5 million copies. Frey claims everything in it was true.

However, when investigative reporters checked into details in the book that detail the life of the author they found that it was untrue. Lots of it was made up. Memoir, as we know, is a genre of true, non-fiction, first-person telling of life. Some are claiming it should be called a novel, not a memoir.

Frey appeared on Larry King Live to talk about the controversy. In that interview he admitted to 18 pages of "embellishments," which he justified as "less than five percent of the total book."

He said something that has rubbed me wrong: "The important aspect of a memoir is getting at the essential truth. I stand by the essential truth of my book ... I don't think I'd change anything."

Doubleday Publishers shrugged off the accusations of dishonesty essentially saying, so what ... it's sold a ton of books. Oprah basically did the same thing. While she complained about the controversy she said that whether it was true or not, it didn't matter because it impacted her deeply.

It reminds me of someone I knew who claimed to always tell the truth...plus or minus ten percent ... sounds like he and Frey would get along well.

As Christ followers committed to Truth, how are we to respond to this? This wreaks of relativity and subjectivity. If I could have called in to Larry King I would have asked Frey "You talk about essential truth. What is non-essential truth and who determines if truth is essential or non-essential?"

These are important questions we must deal with, ponder and address. This isn't a literary issue limited to the far-reaching, often unvisited back corners of your public library. This is the tip of the iceberg illuminating an important moral and spiritual issue in our lives.

Truth is Truth and we are called to be beacons of that Truth.

Just something to ponder ...