Memoirs and the way memory works

This is a follow-up to my previous entry, but not in a way you might think. All the while I was writing that entry I was trying to remember another memoir-fabrication scandal from a few years back. I thought I had heard it referenced again recently, but that tenuous fact didn't get me any closer to a name.

But I knew how to get there.

I remember where I was when I heard the story. It was on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, an interview show on NPR that focuses mainly on authors, musicians, and other people in the entertainment industry. (The first category expands the scope of the program to cover pretty much everybody who has ever written anything.) More important to my recollection, it was while I was in my car, driving along a winding road in the woods. I was driving through Ashley, birthplace of Russell Johnson, the Professor from Gilligan's Island.

Why was I there?

I was there because I was scouting out the location of an upcoming 3 Brix Shy show. I had a little extra time after work that afternoon, and it was Summer, and it was still sunny even close to 7:00 in the evening. 3 Brix Shy would be playing a show at the picnic grounds of a church in Ashley during their church bazaar in a few days, and I didn't want to worry about getting hopelessly lost on my way there the day of the show.

So, now I had several hooks to hang memories from: It was summer. The show in Ashley was one of the last shows 3 Brix Shy ever played - I think it was their second-to-last. So now all I had to do was figure out when 3 Brix Shy played their last show.

Where could I turn for that tidbit of information?

Why, my blog of course, and my entry on 3 Brix Shy.

OK, so there it was: "The band broke up last August..." This was written in May of 2004, putting the breakup date as August 2003. My friend who was the bassist for the band (who couldn't remember offhand what year they broke up!) thought that the church bazaar show was in August. So now all I had to do was go into the Fresh Air archives for August 2003 and start slogging through.

It didn't take long to find what I was looking for. The show was on Thursday, August 14, and the writer in question was Vivian Gornick. (This means that the church bazaar show was probably the next day, Friday August 15.) To hear the whole Vivan Gornick / Maureen Corrigan confrontation firsthand, go here and listen to all three stories, in order.

A Google search search on '"vivian gornick" npr' finds a Newsday article by Tom Beer* from January 25, 2006 called "No place for lies in the 'true story' industry" which mentions Gornick in relation to the current James Frey "A Million Little Pieces" scandal. Interestingly, it sounds like nothing Gornick did even pushes the limits that Bill lays out in his comment to my previous entry. The Newsday article explores this story more broadly than I could ever hope to, pointing out examples I had never even heard of. Read it soon, before it goes into the pay-to read archives.

*Mmmmmm, beeeer.