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| January 19, 2006 |
Oprah meet Elie. Elie meet James Frey.
 Oy. Is there any other word for the juxtaposition of James Frey, whose memoir/novel/load of bunk has been revealed to be a gross exaggeration (at best) or a gaggle of outright lies (at worst), and Elie Wiesel, whose originally Yiddish, then French, then English and now English again Night has just been announced as Oprah's next book club selection?
Wiesel's retelling of his life in Nazi concentration camps is one of the most prolifically read books in the modern Jewish canon, and the author himself has won the Nobel Peace Price for his tireless efforts to use his literature as a force against similar genocides and injustices. Nevertheless, there has been criticisms made in the almost fifty years since the book was first translated into English. Was it a novel or a memoir? Entirely true, or essentially true with some deviations, however small?
The debate has been minor, and largely irrelevant to the millions who've read the book and been moved by its power. If the details were off, what does it matter? The man still survived these camps, and one wonders if their horrors could ever be truly exaggerated.
Then came Oprah, or rather James Frey. The controversy swirling around his book A Million Little Pieces has caused the Oprah pick of Wiesel to shed new light on the old, quiet debate about Night. Without question, nobody is comparing Frey's fabrications to Wiesel's writing, even if the Holocaust survivor got some details wrong. But in a culture that eats controversy for breakfast and lunch (dinner is reserved for family-friendly fare, so sayeth the FCC), it can invite less informed readers (or would-be readers) to look at Wiesel's story with a degree of skepticism that is hardly warranted.
I won't say this is a horrible danger, even in a time when Holocaust denial grows ever more vociferous and ever more effective in gaining a platform to preach to the mainstream. But if it cheapens, even a little bit, even in the eyes of only a few, the power and accepted truth of Wiesel's work, then Frey has done more than a disservice to his own readers. He's done a disservice to Elie Wiesel's as well.
But don't take it from me. The New York Times has an article on the subject, and NPR has run a commentary by Peter Manseau on the same subject.
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