Will the parade of poseur memoirists never end?

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Time to rework the cover of Margaret B. Jones’ ‘memoir.’

In case you haven’t heard, Margaret B. Jones is another faux memoirist. Exposed by the New York Times (with the help of her sister) just days before the release of ‘Love and Consequences,’ it turns out there is no Jones, purportedly a half-Native American, half-white foster child raised in South Los Angeles who fell in with the Crips. Instead, author Margaret Seltzer was raised in comfortable circumstances by her biological family in the Valley and went to an exclusive private school.

It takes a lot of work to write a book. Why on earth do people keep pouring so much effort into writing memoirs that aren’t memoirs? There’s a word for what you’re doing, folks; we call it ‘fiction.’

Carolyn Kellogg