Trial by Oprah

Yesterday, Oprah Winfrey had James Frey back for a follow-up interview. Instead of going forward to ask what he'd accomplished since thier first interview (in which she took him to task for lies in his book A Million Little Pieces) she went back continuously to thier previous interview. How did he feel; what did he think; what did his wife say; what did other people say? How did he think he could get away with a book purportedly marked as a memoir when he'd written things that were wholly made up and not true?

The original interview was many years ago. I kept waiting for her to say she'd read his intervening works, as I have, with great appreciation. My Friend Leonard made me cry. Bright Shining Morning, for instance, and others. I wanted to shout, "You're talking to a writer, not a criminal!" The more I watched the more uncomfortable I became. I'd tuned-in especially because as a writer attempting my own autobiographic fiction, I'm already experiencing the same problems he had, both in writing and then in releasing such personal stories. There's any number of people around every writer, such as family, who don't want your story told. And as a writer you're absolutely compelled to tell your story. If you tell the straight truth from your life, those people will hate you. Can you make it more palatable by making it fiction? Can you balance both in the same book?

I recognized immediately his look of near catatonic resolve as he replied to her in a monotone, as if he'd inwardly cautioned himself - I will not blow up, I will take what comes and deal with it in a rational and straightforward manner. I am not on trial.

Over and over, with what I thought intelligence and thoughtful introspection, James Frey outlined his work, his life and his writing. Again and again, he took full responsibility for the mistake of letting his handlers (agents, editors, publishers) market what was essentially autobiographical fiction as a memoir. Oprah's insistence that the now-memoir was false and deliberately sold us all a pack of lies was not to be excused, she kept coming back to that outraged stance. If she couldn't stop going back to the beginning, he could play that game too. Back to Why I Write.

James Frey mentioned the same people I would have, as starting points to wanting to write in the first place. This was the best part of the show. He cited Pablo Picasso, Henry Miller and Jack Kerouac, writers who made him suddenly realize that meaningful art and literature could be made from a writer's own life. I would have added D. H. Lawrence and a few poets, especially poet-novelists such as Annie Dillard, Margaret Atwood, James Dickey and Kenneth Rexroth.

Once a book is done, it's done, and despite editing the bejesus out of it, a writer moves forward to whatever's next. As the author of two novels, I have no desire to dissect the circumstances surrounding the creation of my past works, even if I could remember what I originally thought and felt. I've already solved those problems. I've finger-biting-angsted those books trough release and they are now old news. The only thing interesting to a writer is what's ahead which means the next work and the next. Being asked what one thought and felt seven to ten years ago seems deliberately cruel here in light of the furor that caused one writer to leave the country to escape unwanted attention, as Oprah Winfrey's show years ago caused James Frey. Will there be an apology?

There will be a part two to this interview this afternoon. I'll be watching.