I tend to think things like this happen, because some want to believe that there is something to be gained, some insight, to justify our own view of the world, from the lives of others who have lived in the streets. Some validation, because they try so hard to be a part of how we live.

To write a book, to get a normal job, to live a normal life just as we do, somehow putting the horrors of their childhood or traumatic event behind them, in an effort to be just like everyone else.

(This will be hard to understand.) If we could we would be just like they were, if we weren’t so afraid, that the simulcra of life we live in, would disapear leaving us without our charge cards, and our pretentions.

Then, no longer would the bad things, happen to someone else.

This was just a literary (ahem!) analogue to that lady in South Carolina who, a couple years ago, drowned her kids and blamed it on a black man. Why? Because she knew the authorities, media and white folks would buy it, and they did.  For a while at least.
Suburban whites buy books and they just love them some horror stories about the “other” side of town.

High marks for marketing savvy, Margaret.

Why don’t you leave up the comments from before the book was exposed as a fake?  These would be most amusing.

I also think it’s funny that gang status is now a sought after commodity by well-to-do white kids.  Has the left succeeded in legitimizing victimhood at last?

Accepting a autobiographical mss from a first timer? Insist on ways to authenticate the story.  People have families and relationships that just can’t be faked. 

Most of the mss I worked on were always reviewed by outside authors and experts selected by the publisher, not the author.  Investing a few thousand dollars for this purpose can help not only editorially but with marketing as well.  New authors, eager to be published, will agree that these funds can be taken from futre royalties

In this case, I bet Riverend doesn’t look like America.

Trust but verify!

Who would have thought that even Ronald Reagan might have had some insights!

Two major literary frauds uncovered in two weeks. PLEASE don’t say “make a fool out of me” (again). Make that relatively modest adjustment of approaching books and films with the same moderate degree of skepticism that you would with someone eager to refinance your house, or sell you a car.  It seems to be painfully necessary, since the publishing industry is clearly not only not doing the necessary background checks, but is almost certainly complicit in these frauds.

I’m certainly not an expert on South Central, or any other ghetto, but, sorry, how could a sentence like: “With the money from my first drug sale, I bought my cemetery plot” not be, of itself, a “smoking gun” that this is fraud?

Atonement?  Find the book that already has been written by someone living in South Central, and promote that. Uncover the next fraud now.... there ARE numerous others out there.  In short, be a CRITIC, and er… ah.... do not accept things at face value, but dig for the Truth as the website is often good at doing.

First, as others said, just what is wrong with publishing fictional personal stories? They can even add something like, “based on a true story.”

One must wonder how much the publishers and agents have to do with this, as we all know how much marketing and controversy is hyped (and fabricated) in order to get press and sell books.

It would be goo if one of the Truthdig staff, many of whom are book authors, write about the inside of the publishing industry. An expose is in order.

Cyrena:

Yes, this does seem to be something of a trend.  And let’s not forget James Frey - famously touted by Oprah - and his largely fabricated “non-fiction” novel.

Peace.

Too bad she didn’t write about the Evil Bush/Cheney regime, Zionist Jews taking over the world and how 9/11 was a government conspiracy, then we could ignore the fact that what she wrote was all a lie

Looks like it was just as well.

What’s UP with this phenomena of creating these huge stories that are total lies? It’s not like one cannot find this stuff, (and the real people attached to them) and simply write the truth.

It’s like ever since the ‘greatest lie ever told’ hit the WTC on 9/11...people wanna see if they can top it...just to make a buck.

So, we’ve got the lady with the Holocaust experience...turns out to be a lie. And now we’ve got this Sherman Oaks girl, (the epitome of upper middle class suburbia in So. Cal) claiming to be an ex-gang banger.

So, what’s up with America these days? Is everybody just living a lie? Been in the rabbit hole too long.