BS: Post #5 Truth in Memior

     To be considered non-fiction, I feel that a book should be about 95 percent true. If it is anything less than that, the book would be considered unreliable. You don't know which facts are true and which are false. If you needed a non-fiction book for a project you are doing on a topic you know nothing about, it is impossible for the reader to know if the information they have is correct or not. But since you are reading a non-fiction book, you believe it to be true.
     I believe that half-truths are okay if it is still a good story. People are looking too far into specific genres. Who cares if the author bends the truth a little to make their story more interesting. Their story is just that, a story. The definition of story is an account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment. Nowhere in the definition does it say that it has to be totally true. In fact, it says it can be imaginary or real. The choice is up to the author on how to make their story more interesting. So, no, I do think it matters if Frey or other memoirists bent the truth to tell their stories because it is their story, and no one else's.

     I agree and disagree with David Shields. I believe that we need to have a distinct line between the two genres of fiction and non-fiction. Like I said above, if you are doing a project and need specific facts that you know are going to be true, you need to know where to look. If we didn't have a line between fiction and non-fiction, the reader would just pick a book, unsure if it is true or not. But I agree that we do not need to divide fiction and non-fiction into more specific genres, such as mystery, romance, science, etc. The book the reader picks up is not going to be judged by what genre it is considered, it is going to be judged on how well written it is. And this will keep people from judging the types of books.. If someone who does not prefer mystery novels in general does not know if a book is a mystery or not, they will pick it up and maybe read it. They would be judging the book on how good it was, and not on the specific genre it is.