One of the most popular genres (both in life and in literature) is the inspiring story of heroic overcoming, of people who have overcome incredibly difficult circumstances and achieved success against all odds — they are idolized, emulated, and held up as role models. But sometimes these stories are fake.
We're talking about the most shameless fake memoirs.
Stories about childhood and overcoming addictions
The memoir genre is traditionally rife with colorful exaggerations, clever omissions, and fabrications. But the subgenre of autobiography, which could be called “My Terrible Childhood,” is particularly plagued by outright lies.
One of the most telling cases is the 1971 book Go Ask Alice, which was marketed as the confessional of a 15-year-old drug addict who ran away from home, was abused, was drawn into prostitution, and tragically died. The Diary was even banned for its obscene scenes, with an excerpt from it somehow managing to be included in a literature syllabus.
In the end, it turned out that the author was a virtuous Mormon writer named Beatrice Sparks. And she didn't stop there and managed to publish several more diaries on behalf of teenagers suffering from a variety of troubles.
Among the lying sufferers, Misha Defonseca, author of the book “Surviving with the Wolves,” stands out. The heroine of the book, a little Jewish girl, travels through Europe after her parents are deported. She is sheltered by a pack of wolves, kills a Nazi soldier in self-defense, sneaks into the Warsaw ghetto, then escapes, and eventually finds her way home. It later turns out that Defonseca, born Monica de Waal, is Belgian (the lesser of two evils) and at that age simply went to school.
Perhaps the origin of the false biography is connected with the fact that Monica's father was suspected of betraying the Resistance fighters. The girl suffered from the role of “the daughter of a traitor”, so she invented an epic childhood for herself. Later she explained: “This is not the whole truth, but it is my truth.”
An uncomfortable story also came out with the memoir “Love and Consequences” about a girl from the indigenous population of the United States who grew up in a foster family of gangsters in a poor area of Los Angeles. To be convincing, the writer Margaret Seltzer, under the pseudonym Margaret Jones, even appeared on the radio with an accent and talked about her “buddies” from gangster areas. She was exposed very quickly. Actually, her sister wrote to the publisher and said that they grew up in a prosperous white family and went to a decent school in a good area. The book was removed from sale, and those who wanted their money were refunded.
Celebrity memoirs and outraged relatives
It's extremely dangerous to write sad stories about your childhood while your relatives are still alive—especially if you're a celebrity. For example, when Mariah Carey released her memoir, her brother and sister immediately started suing her. Alison Carey's sister died before the trial was over, and her brother is still trying to prove in court that he was slandered.
The story of the fictionalized memoirs of the famous writer Michel Houellebecq turned out to be less banal. In his 1998 novel “Elementary Particles”, he portrayed his own mother in an unattractive way. One might not have guessed, because the novel is not declared as autobiographical, but the names of the main character and his mother practically coincided with the real ones. 83-year-old Lucy did not like being described as an irresponsible hippie and nymphomaniac, so ten years later she released her own memoirs, in which she called her son “a liar and a parasite.” She also promised to knock out his teeth with a cane when they met if he mentioned her again. Critics say that the memoirs written by her mother are weak, but passionate.
The inspiring lies of coaches
Although stories about difficult childhoods clearly dominate the genre of false memoirs, works about successes and achievements have also not escaped complaints from dissatisfied readers or at least serious questions to the authors.
British coach and podcaster Jay Shetty published his life story in 2020 under the title “Think Like a Monk. Pump Up Your Life.” Allegedly, he spent three years learning to think consciously in an Indian monastery. And then he realized that all this wisdom needed to be brought to the world. On this fact of his biography, Shetty built a career as an “enlightened” influencer: he founded a successful meditation startup, married Hollywood celebrities, gathered millions of followers on social networks, and sold certificates of completion of a master's degree.
But then critics discovered that he had not learned spiritual truths in monasteries – he had simply been going to the London Krishnas in his neighborhood since childhood. But he did not want to talk about them – his branch of the church had acquired a bad reputation over the years, while the mysterious “Vedic teachings” sounded much more respectable and sold better.
The scandal ended with the release in 2006 of the uplifting book “Three Cups of Tea” about the adventures of mountaineer and philanthropist Greg Mortenson. This bestseller was published in 39 countries. In it, Mortenson told how he got lost in the mountains, met the locals, decided to help them, and threw all his strength into building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
And it's not that it was an outright lie, but in reality there was much less drama, as well as success. Greg didn't get lost, and terrorists didn't kidnap him. And only 41% of the donations he collected went to schools. The schools themselves, as the audit showed, were either not built, or unfinished, or abandoned, or used for other purposes, for example as a warehouse. There were no signs of theft either. It turned out that Mortenson is a good writer, but a poor organizer. He simply squandered the money. As a result of this whole story, he returned what he could to the fund and resigned. As for schools, as it turned out, such places also need infrastructure for them: roads and staff.
Memoirs from a business guru
It is generally worth listening to advice from business gurus' books only when you can see how they have put their own advice into practice. Wade Cook, an American financial guru and author of books on real estate, went bankrupt twice and spent almost seven and a half years in prison for tax evasion.
Charles Givens, the bestselling author of titles like “Riches Without Risk,” went broke and lost several clients in court. For example, he recommended that a woman give up her life insurance to save money, and her husband was soon hit by an uninsured driver.
Bankruptcy also befell Mark Haroldsen, the author of the book “How to Awaken the Financial Genius Within You.” Apparently, he didn't make it.
The record holder for popularity and at the same time inconsistency with his own image was Robert Kiyosaki, the author of the famous franchise “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”. His book is a collection of parables, supposedly based on the author’s life. But the author’s life is haunted by divorces, lawsuits (including with a co-author) and bankruptcies. In 2006, Kiyosaki appeared on TV as a mentor to three entrepreneurs, each of whom invested $1,000 on his advice. The advice did not bring success.
High-profile sports careers and revelations
The question of whether it is permissible to lie in memoirs, and to what extent, has been raised in courts more than once. For example, the infamous cyclist Lance Armstrong, before the doping scandal, published two books about his sporting career. The memoirs, of course, told a benevolent story of a healthy lifestyle and noble ambitions.
A group of readers sued for $5 million in damages for the brutal deception. But a judge in California ruled that the athlete's fiction was protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But not all authors are so lucky.
Legal consequences for lying in memoirs
Misha Defonseca was ordered to pay back $22 million to her publisher for her work on the Holocaust. Disappointed readers of James Frey also won in court. They were paid their legal costs and promised to refund the cost of the books they purchased. Additionally, Frey was ordered to spend a substantial amount on charity.
Of course, to avoid costs and scandals, publishers try to check the biographies of authors. But there are limits to everything. Not every detective is able to find out whether a supposedly homeless writer is hiding a house in France. Therefore, publishers protect themselves with special clauses in contracts with authors, so that in case of something they can blame everything on the writer. But the author also has a chance to emerge from the sea of lies. Yes, Frey's book continues to sell, just with corrections and an appeal to readers.
Everything is fine with pathological liar Frank Abagnale, author of the book “Catch Me If You Can”. In fact, he had much less witty adventures and cooperation with the FBI and much more harassment of girls and extortion of money from young ladies in love. True, with such a story, a good film with DiCaprio would not have worked out. Only in 2022, when Abagnale was also awarded the Ethics Award from the Catholic Xavier University in Cincinnati, critics began to be indignant so loudly that he was a little ashamed and retired.
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