A. H. Ream blogs about James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, and the controversy over his "embellishments" of his personal life which have come to light in the press.

I'm somewhat shocked, though I should know better, that so many people see this as a tempest in a teapot.

Granted, in the scheme of the world, this isn't important, but the idea that it's OK to make up events in your life for a autobiographical book is pretty disturbing.

Many people are writing this off as acceptable "fudging" because the point of his autobiography is more important than the facts.

I guess we have different expectations, and standards of "fudging".

To me, fudging is creating dialog for conversations you can't remember the exact details of, or ascribing internal meaning to things you couldn't possibly have while they happened. Messing up dates perhaps, transposing conversations between people.

When you're making up felonies* and inventing jail time for them, you're no longer "fudging". And there's a good chance you're not just creating errors of memory. Once you've crossed that line, you've now opened yourself up for people to take a fine-toothed comb through your work. The author's only done it to himself.

I'd guess he did it because a "true" story of overcoming adeversity would sell better than a fictional one, so making up stuff to make your story sound better will move more books. And since the publisher only cares about what will sell, and not get them sued, lies about yourself are pretty safe.

Until someone actually checks your story and uncovers your lies.