Does the Truth Really Matter?

by Sean  Carman

Sarah Lyall wraps her profile of David Sedaris in the New York Times around the question "How authentic is it?" In other words, she asks, "how much can we believe that Mr. Sedaris's funny tales are also the truth?"

It's a question we all asked when Oprah was dressing down James Frey and journalists were taking the poor guy to task for his seeming ignorance of the difference between fiction writing and reporting. I mean, didn't it cross your mind back then? What about David Sedaris' stories? Did he make any of that stuff up? Didn't he sort of have to?

Lyall's profile gets at the answer, although I have to say I'm surprised so much written about the "fake memoir" genre seems to skirt around the central issue, which I think is this: It doesn't matter whether the reported facts really happened. What matters is whether, in telling the story, the writer is, in an artful way, honest with the reader about what's going on.

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