Lit up

In case you missed it, the NYT's Edward Wyatt turned his focus Saturday on James Frey's editor and agent. Neither of them spoke to the reporter, but that didn't keep several other publishing figures from wondering what they knew and when they knew it. And today Wyatt does a feature on Martha Sherrill's The Ruins of California, examining the author's decision to take what started as a memoir -- she had already received a hefty advance based on a proposal for a memoir -- and make it a novel. (The title, by the way, refers to the fact that the family in the novel is named the Ruins. Sheesh.) Writing in approving tones, Wyatt says:

At a time when the publishing business is struggling with the meaning of truth and memoir, Ms. Sherrill, 47, is in a way the anti-James Frey: an author who turned her back on a lucrative memoir not because she could not handle the truth, but perhaps because the truth was too important to let go.

After that it gets pretty confusing what "truth" we're talking about, so you can read it for yourself.

And in Salon, there's an excerpt from a Valentin's Day-themed book about sex and love by Ann Marlowe, author of a previous memoir about heroin.

You know, if there's anything the Frey imbroglio has taught us, it's this: A junkie always lies.

Breaking: NYT to move Frey's book from nonfiction to fiction list

writers, memoir, Martha Sherrill, Edward Wyatt, truthiness, Ann Marlowe