Another memoirist fakes it all

I can understand overreaching as much as anyone can. I can understand weakness and obsession and addiction and how a lack of the all-important trait called self esteem can drive you to do things that, ultimately, you are ashamed of.

But for the life of me, I cannot understand people such as Margaret B. Jones .

Jones, if you haven’t heard, is the latest author to get caught faking her memoir. Her names isn’t even Jones; it’s Margaret Seltzer. As pointed out in the New York Times , Seltzer is an all-white, private-school graduate from Sherman Oaks, Calif., who tried to pass herself off as a real girl of the streets.

Her book, “Love and Consequences: A Memoir of Hope and Survival,” even had earned a few good reviews, including one from Times reviewer Michiko Kakutani , who called the book a “humane and deeply affecting memoir.”

That’s all over now. Once Seltzer’s sister outed her, the Penguin Books imprint ( Riverhead Books ) that had published the book recalled all copies and canceled her book tour.

My question is, how did she think she was going to get away with such a wild story? Did she not suspect that people who knew her were going to speak out? Particularly after the James Frey incident, and his public flogging by Oprah Winfrey , people tend to suspect any memoir that looks too good, too dramatic, too picture perfect.

It’s a sad story. I bet we’ll be reading about it before very long. Maybe even see a movie version. Diablo Cody could write it.