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Powell's Q&A, Q&A | December 10, 2009

Powell's Q&A: Sam Stephenson

0 comments By Sam Stephenson

Describe your latest book/project/work. I've been studying the life and work of photographer W. Eugene Smith for 13 years. My first book (Dream... Continue »

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1. 
   $28.00 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

   The Jazz Loft Project: Photographs and Tapes of W. Eugene Smith from 821 Sixth Avenue, 1957-1965

   Sam Stephenson and W. Eugene Smith

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acid42, October 8, 2007

It’s written in a grim, gritty, often repetitious first-person point-of-view, but delivers a wallop with its valorous attempt at describing what infinite addiction and infinite rage are like, using finite words.
___The story pulls you into the writer’s head– you become James Frey, you feel as he felt, and experience things as he does while reading the book. And it’s a memoir– meaning it’s all true. (SUPPOSEDLY.)
___But it turns out Frey embellished. A lot. Which, you know, is perfectly forgivable because if adding on to the story aids it, then why not? Except for the fact that it’s touted as a non-fiction book. A memoir for goodness’ sake. And for the fact that Frey himself has said numerous times in many interviews that the book is truthful.
___Investigative website The Smoking Gun uncovered proof that Frey made up most of his “Criminal” career to make himself look worse than he really was. Crucial events such as his arrest in Ohio aren’t corroborated by actual records. And well, it turns out Frey was originally shopping this book around as fiction and consequently rejected by publishers numerous times, before some rewrites and a major overhaul into a “memoir” got it into Doubleday.
___The reason why it’s such a betrayal? The appeal of the book is precisely in the reader thinking “this actually happened to someone for real.” Once that thought is over-ridden by copious amounts of embellishment, it loses its zest.
___And yet. If simply for the psychological hurdles and the way Frey wrote of the addiction he was dealing with, the book still possesses a power all its own. Of course that’s if you can get past the lies.

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