The Truth and Where It's Been Hiding

There's some dust being stirred up about James Frey's best-selling memoir about substance abuse, "A Million Little Pieces." It seems that some of the facts presented in the book aren't exactly factual. Certain elements may have been exaggerated or even fabricated in order to make the story more compelling.
Now, let me think - what precedence does this literary hyperbole bring to mind? According to SmokingGun.com, "In what may be his book's most crass flight from reality, Frey remarkably appropriates and manipulates details of the incident so he can falsely portray himself as the tragedy's third victim. It's a cynical and offensive ploy that has left one of the victims' parents bewildered. 'As far as I know, he had nothing to do with the accident,' said the mother of one of the dead girls. 'I figured he was taking license...he's a writer, you know, they don't tell everything that's factual and true.'" The truth, it would seem, was stretched. James Frey is not the desperado he paints himself as, and alas, he may be best described as "polite and cooperative."
This stands in contrast to the most recent work of Chuck Klosterman, who describes his story (at more than one point) as "85% True." In today's world, that seems about right - 85%. Names were changed, circumstances were rearranged, coincidences induced, and measurements were increased or decreased to suit the telling. I would love to believe every gonzo syllable of Hunter S. Thompson's rambling prose (I spent many weekends in college trying to recreate them experimentally) - but I guess a literal translation into reality may be asking a little too much. As for Ernest Hemingway? Don't get me started. If, as Robin Williams so rightly points out in Dead Poet's Society, poetry exists to "woo women," then the personal memoir exists to pump up the reality. As early as 1700, Samuel Pepys' diary was considered by many to be "the first novel."
Finally, at this forum, we can only imagine just how much more interesting the blog would become with a little manipulation of the true and factual events of the author's life. Tune in tomorrow as I discuss my awkward and difficult upbringing in the Congo by a family of genetically engineered spider monkeys.