James Frey Says He'll Keep "Twisting The Lines Of Fact"
Apparently we're now at the stage in the James Frey career trajectory where the once-disgraced writer can stop pretending he's sorry for lying in his memoir and on Oprah, because he's a bestselling author again now, and in case you forgot Norman Mailer once had his back, that's right God damned Norman Mailer. "He is beyond unrepentant," the Times of London writes. That's actually putting it mildly. In an interview with the paper, Frey basically promises to lie some more, punch everyone in the face and finish the bible like the second, ballsier coming of Moses.
I'm in conflict with what writing is, in conflict with what literature is, in conflict with what people's acceptable standards are. In conflict with the idea of what fiction and non-fiction is, or are. There are things that will play themselves out. I'm not done with twisting the lines of fact or fiction. I'm not finished with that issue by any stretch of the imagination. There isn't a great deal of difference between fact and fiction, it's just how you choose to tell a story...
The only standards imposed on the creation of [my] books are the ones I want there to be. What means something is if my book is read in 50 years. That's the only goal. If I have to take some big shots in the process of trying to make that happen, then I'm prepared to take those big shots...
He says, with undisguised relish, that his next book will be called The Final Testament of the Bible. As he describes it, you couldn't fault the honesty of the title's intentions. It will concern his ideas of who and what the Messiah is – he doesn't claim he's it – as if Christ were walking the streets of New York.
Frey can swagger like this because he knows he's not going to earn his bank on nonfiction ever again. And a novelist can trash the concept of absolute, objective truth as much as he wants without taking a hit on book sales. Heck, he might even get some free publicity out of it!
