Exactement

Does Oprah Winfrey, the American television celebrity, host of the eponymously named broadcast and cable TV shows, and top-honoree in Forbes Magazine's 2005 "Celebrity 100" Hall of Fame, really expect us to believe that James Frey's 2003 bestseller A Million Little Pieces is a fictional account of a young man facing-down destruction at the hands of his own drug and alcohol demons, rather than a straightforward factual report, otherwise known as autobiography or memoir? And does it really matter? And if so, for whom, exactly? For you? For me? For its author? How about for its publisher, Doubleday? The next thing you know, Oprah is going to turn on J.D. Salinger and denounce him to her devoted 30-million-households-a-week audience. What if the events that Holden Caulfield recounts in The Catcher in the Rye never happened? What if they happened, but in some kinda weird way, and these differed from the way recounted by Holden? Worse, what if it turns out that Holden Caufield doesn't really exist? That is to say, exists, but exists as a character within a fictional work, and therefore exists without also being real? Leaving us in the end with a kinda nonexistent Holden only? Along with his nonexistent world? A World-Catcher, for those paying attention? Kinda like a World-Lear? A World-Recherche? And a World-War on Terror? Rather than a real world? Wow. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Really. Right-right-right. Uh-huh. We'll be right back.... (Announcements)

A Million Little Lies -- and One Great Big Lie, David Peterson, 28 janvier 2006