The day after the publishing world reeled from revelations of yet another faked memoir, this one from a supposed mixed-race former drug-running foster child from South-Central Los Angeles who turned out to have been raised by her white biological family in
Others debated whether the book world's credulous ways are in dire need of an overhaul.
FOR THE RECORD
Faked memoir: In an article in Wednesday's Section A about reaction to the news that the Margaret B. Jones book "Love and Consequences" was a fraud, Random House spokesman Stuart Applebaum's last name was misspelled as Appelbaum.
Still others focused on the racial subtext of the story. Margaret B. Jones' "Love and Consequences," as many pointed out, is a familiar case of a white writer, abetted by the majority-white
"Love and Consequences" tells the story of a part Native American L.A. girl who is sent to foster care after being sexually abused, falls in with the Bloods street gang, receives a gun for her 14th birthday, and is finally rescued by a stressed-out but big-hearted black foster mother called Big Mom.
In reality, Margaret B. Jones is Margaret Seltzer, who got to know gang members through her work with the Brother/SisterHood Foundation. Her deception was revealed by her sister, Cyndi Hoffman, who called the book's publisher,
Today Riverhead, a division of Penguin Books, recalled the memoir, canceled the author's appearances and offered an apology.
"Riverhead relies on authors to tell us the truth," Marilyn Ducksworth, executive director of publicity, said in a statement. "Indeed, an author promises us the truth in their publishing agreement. When it became known that the author was misrepresenting her personal story, we took it seriously, moved very quickly and attempted to corroborate new information we were presented with."
Still, the publisher defended its original faith in the book, saying Seltzer had provided "a great deal of evidence to support her story: photographs, letters; parts of Peggy's life story in another published book; Peggy's story had been supported by one of her former professors; Peggy even introduced the agent to people who misrepresented themselves as her foster siblings."
