Another false memoir

I woke up early enough to browse the New York Times online (what, I was impressed,) and learned that yet another writer fictionalized a bestselling memoir. This time it was Margaret Seltzer, a middle class white girl, writing about *her* experience as a foster kid in South Central, running drugs for the Bloods.

Just last week it was Misha Defonseca and her Holocaust memoir about living with wolves. And then it was James Frey and A Million Little Pieces. (Ps, you should all watch the South Park episode called A Million Little Fibers.)

What I don’t get is this: if you have a good story, why not write it as fiction? If you are a good writer, people will find it believable even though it isn’t true. That is the bigger accomplishment in my opinion.