Chicagoist: Upton No Good?

King of Zing

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 17:39:19 -0600

Why do you keep bringing up Jim Frey, didn't he get fired by the Cubs in the late 80's early 90's?

josh

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 16:40:20 -0600

Even fiction is based on something. Stories aren't written in some kind of experience vaccum. I'm sure Ellis used some of his experiences and people he knew as fodder like every author does. How would that make it a memoir? As far as this thing goes, yeah, it's dishonest to say its a memoir when it isn't. But if you like reading it, who the hell cares? Is every autobiography now going to be held to some special standard? I just got done reading Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman. Don't tell me that dude didn't embellish his 'memoir' like crazy. Does that make me not enjoy the book or feel cheated? No, I could care less. It's like having your grandpa tell you one of his stories that you love to hear and then telling him you enjoyed it but he's now a bad person because he exaggerated it.

Truman

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 15:57:12 -0600

This whole Frey thing made me think of Less Than Zero and The Rules of Attraction. I read these books back when I was a cool college student and dinosaurs roamed the earth. I thought they were so cool and so modern-day-Salinger, etc. Now I don't really think all that much of them. But the Frey story made me think of them because they're what I'd call imbellished memoirs. When you're reading them you know that Sean Bateman is really Ellis, and at least half the wacky stuff he is describing happened. Otherwise, would so many people have read them? People like to read into real human beings' lives, especially if they have a crazy story to tell, like death-defying drug abuse or coked-up Bennington students screwing one another. Bret Easton Ellis called his first two books novels and got them published as novels. James Frey didn't. Frey goes on Oprah and apologizes to the masses. I say, ah, who cares. A book like In Cold Blood is much more worthy of all this energy.

Thad

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 15:20:59 -0600

Here is one main rule I find useful: Good writing is good writing. (Just like good music is good music, etc.) That said, people who try to sell fiction as nonfiction-I consider this an act of fraud, and a breach of trust with the reader--should have their toenails pulled out by a drunken frat boy with nothing better to do. I'm too much of an elitist snob to read an Oprah-approved book (well, I've read a few of them, but before she selected them, damnit), but it seems this Frey guy is a wonderful writer in any case, just a guy who took part in fraud (along with the publisher).

jkt

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 14:47:34 -0600

what Jim said. So, so confused...

JimW

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 14:18:58 -0600

Hmmm....has "novel" acquired a new meaning or is it still used to describe a work of fiction?