Book club fans take note, Oprah’s latest reading selection is holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s autobiographical novel "Night."
Note the words "autobiographical novel."
One of Oprah’s previous book club selections, the addiction/recovery memoir "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey, recently was lambasted for containing fictional scenes. Oprah stood by Frey’s book, but ended up with egg on her face.
"Night," Wiesel’s account of his time at Auschwitz and Buchenwald, is marketed by bookstores as a novel, though the author refers to it as a memoir. I remember reading the book in high school. Fiction or fact, it was packed with imagery and emotional resonance that brought me to tears.
Frey’s book, on the other hand, failed to capture my interest. I started reading it twice, but it seemed filled with gratuitous gross-out scenes (lots of fluids pass in and out of Frey’s body), and I never did sympathize with Frey as a narrator. As far as addiction memoirs go, I prefer Augusten Burroughs’ "Dry."
And you, Wichitalk reader? Do you care whether a book is called a memoir or a novel? DO you have different standards for books that are supposed to be true, and those that are fiction?
Check out Slate’s point/counterpoint with Meghan O’Rourke and Seth Mnookin for more thoughts on this topic.
–Posted by Jillian Cohan