By Terra Simms
Autobiographies and memoirs have become a cash crop, but some have come under fire. On Oprah and the Tyra Banks Show, respectively, authors James Frey (“A Million Little Pieces”) and Karrine Steffans (“Confessions of a Video Vixen”) have powerful allies, and in the case of the latter, a televised adversary due to the rising controversy surrounding their questionable memoirs.
Beginning in the ’90s and continuing to the present, the craft of writing memoirs has been steadily taking over the field of literature. Authors detail everything from bad childhoods to bad divorces, along with any other tidbit from their lives that they can use to inspire, convert or gain fame among readers. The memoir writers of the “me” generation rely on often-outrageous but purportedly true accounts of their lives.
In her book, Steffans recounts her past struggles depicting a childhood riddled with abusive women and haunted by an absentee father. Her early adulthood was filled with strip clubs, drugs and several sexual encounters with hip-hop’s elite. In her book, she claims to have had sexual relations with Ice T, Diddy, Ja Rule, and Jay Z, among others. Like Frey, she has been challenged for proof of her relationships, but maintains that “truth and honesty is [her] thing.”
On Jan. 16 in Cook County Circuit court, Pilar More filed a class action lawsuit against James Frey for consumer fraud, which begs the question, what is the cost of suspected falsehoods in literature?
“A Million Little Pieces” is Frey’s account of his life as an outcast, self-medicating with drugs. The author itemizes traceable events that occurred in his life, offering detailed descriptions of bodily fluids, and emotions, while providing a hopeful message. Last September, Oprah entered the memoir into her infamous Book Club, raising the small sales of the book to bestseller levels with 3.5 million copies sold.
On Jan. 8, 2006, The Smoking Gun, an investigative Web site, released an exclusive article detailing Frey’s embellishments and outright lies. According to The Smoking Gun, Frey not only greatly exaggerated the length of his jail time and the crimes he committed that placed him there.
Frey’s “Pieces” was first pitched to publishers as a novel, an fictional work in prose, but was rejected. Frey then changed the classification to a memoir, a subjective narrative composed of personal experience, catching both the eye of Oprah Winfrey and The Smoking Gun.
Amongst the rising controversy of his book Frey appeared on CNN’s Larry King Live, where to the surprise of both King and Frey, Oprah defended the book’s message and, indirectly, the author. Oprah stated in a phone interview on the show, “I rely on the publishers to define the category that a book falls within, and also the authenticity of the work, but the underlying message of redemption in James Frey’s memoir still resonates with me, and I know it resonates with millions of other people who have read this book.”
Steffans received no such defense for her book when she appeared on the Tyra Banks Show. Banks, a former supermodel, criticized the author for presenting what she deemed false information. Steffans told The New York Daily News, “[Banks] insisted I wrote ‘Confessions’ because I was angry and wanted revenge.”
Since her interview with Banks, Steffans has appeared on radio shows defending the book, which remains on the bestseller list; it is even ranked on Amazon.com at no. 167.
The price for her confession was more than royalties. She produced a documentary of the hip-hop industry, “Hip-Hop: Sexploitation on the Set,” which premiered on VH1 on Dec. 18. In it, Steffans explores the hip-hop video world and its hired female counterparts. With her message, she aims at exposing the truth of the hardships she endured while working as a so-called video vixen, and has earned the label “The Black Jackie Collins.”
Frey, with Oprah Winfrey by his side, noted, “Any factual problems were transcended by the book’s emotional power.” Anchor, his publisher, plans to continue publishing his works – probably because they sell now more than ever.
