Problems Plaguing Memoirs

Over the years, society has become aware of a situation involving aspects of the truth in literary culture.  The “memoir” has become the lightning rod for the majority of scandals that rock the book industry, and is the most publicized.  In the past decade, the most notable case of an issue with the truth within a memoir would be James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces.  The main reason the major fallout in this case centers on that the memoir had the initial backing of TV personality Oprah Winfey, which was later recanted.  The point is that the lack of truth in a person’s memoir is a more understandable phenomenon than people think.  In my chosen blog post, I came to the decision to examine an article that explains how memoirs are inheritably flawed.  The article, The Problem With Memoirs, is by Mano Singham, the director of the University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education at Case Western Reserve University.  Singham had his interest peaked in memoirs after learning about a new book by David Maraniss titled Barack Obama: The Story, which challenges some of the details in Obama’s memoir.  Singham then goes on to explain why he was not surprised about this new turn of events.  He believes that since memoirs are based on memoires and on the author’s perception of the world, instead on research, memoirs are automatically untrustworthy sources of the truth.  Singham points out that since we are human, we have a natural tendency to make our stories more dramatic as the result of attempts to make the memories more meaningful to ourselves.  Also, over time, we start to the believe the lies we have told ourselves, and Singham cited several times where his vivid childhood memories could not be substantiated by his family.  As a result from this evidence, Singham came to the conclusion that all memoirs should not be considered bastions for the truth.  He took this in consideration when he was serving on he used to serve on the committee that chose the first-year book that all freshman had to read. He attempted to block the decision to use the memoir Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson, but was unsuccessful.  It was later discovered than large parts of the memoir were false. 

So as this issue is becoming more and more common, do you feel that the credibility of a “memoir” is stained beyond recovery? Do you feel the author’s are totally to blame for the problems with the truth, even though the process is flawed?  Should an author conduct more research into their own memories, even though that will take time and resources?  Would you still read a person’s memoir?  Any additional commentary would be greatly appreciated.