Tabloid Baby and the latest phony memoir

This morning we add the name Matt McCarthy to the list of pseudomemoirists, another lily-gilding wannabe accused of embellishing his sordid life in order to hype up a story of his experiences. McCarthy, a graduate of Yale and the Harvard Medical School caught out faking a book about his life as a minor league baseball pitcher, joins James Frey and his rehab book, Herman Rosenblat and his Holocaust story and Margaret Seltzer's made-up life as an inner-city gang girl in a hall of shame reserved for the elite publishing world's golden children who conjure literary fiction and arrogantly pass it off as experience. And while these East Coast and Oprah faves embarrass the elite publishing crowd, some might find it ironic that the wildest major memoir of recent years, the one with the most outrageous, jaw-dropping stories, is the one that is incontrovertibly accurate and true and stands unchallenged in its veracity, while its subject is the supposedly fiction-weaving world of tabloid television. But then you recall that the book was not only blacklisted by the oldstream media, but dropped suddenly by interested New York publishers, and you realize that it's not ironic at all, actually.

Hey! How are we supposed to know what to think or say about a book we haven't read?

James Frey, the big swaggering lisping tough guy writer who folded like an origami swan when accused of fictionalizing an obviously garnished and romanticized "memoir," has written a new book. It's about Los Angeles. He lives in New York City. The reviews are in from both coasts:

The New York Times
'Bright Shiny Morning'
By JAMES FREY
Reviewed by JANET MASLIN

James Frey stepped up to the plate and hit one out of the park with his new book.

"So the Bright Shiny Morning guy did it differently... And it worked. That’s how James Frey saved himself."

The Los Angeles Times
'Bright Shiny Morning' by James Frey
By David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

This is a poorly written, superficial novel set in a Los Angeles populated by shallow characters.

"Bright Shiny Morning is a terrible book. One of the worst I've ever read."

What to make of this? Do the Book Review editors have agendas? Hey, we're just pissed that the guy stole our "Fun Facts" (Ulin: "There are also occasional installments of 'Fun Facts' about the city, as if to give the illusion of a certain depth..."). Big Jim. We would have told Oprah to prove it.

James Frey's cell phone number is 917-720-7510

Disgraced memoirist James Frey is coming back strong with his new, uh, fictional, book. His "Big Jim Industries emails us and others on his mailing list his "cell phone number" and urges us to "Leave James Frey a voicemail," while his website says:

"Here is a copy of the billboard for James Frey’s BRIGHT SHINY MORNING (above) that will appear on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood right before the Book Tour begins. The second date of the tour will be just down the street at the Whiskey A Go Go on the Sunset Strip with author Josh Kilmer-Purcell and rippin’ band Black Tide."

Rippin'! Dude! Breaking the law! Breaking the law!

James Frey returns with perfect timing

The day after that Valley Girl Margie Seltzer got caught "pulling a James Frey" and faking a memoir about life in the 'hood, we got this email from James Frey himself.

Or at least folks at his Big (Fat Liar) Jim Industries company know to strike while the lyin's hot:

Hello. You are receiving this message because you signed up to the mailing list on the James Frey website.

We've revamped that website with a bright shiny look and new toys to enjoy. We invite you to check the site - read the blog, register on the new message board, and of course read up on James Frey's new novel BRIGHT SHINY MORNING, being released by Harper Collins this May. Here's the link - http://BigJimIndustries.com

Thank you.

(If you'd like to be removed from this list just reply and say so, or send an e-mail to readers-leave@bigjimindustries.com.)

If you are having trouble viewing this e-mail, please click here.

Did he say "novel"? Well, he sure learned his lesson! Though we still think he folded too quickly and should have stonewalled: "Yeah, Oprah. It's my life. It's true. Prove otherwise!"