This is good stuff right here...

So a couple of weeks ago I read a review of this memoir in EW (Entertainment Weekly, my equivalent to a newspaper), Love & Consequences by Margaret B. Jones. After being sexually abused in kindergarten this girl entered the California foster care system and ended up being adopted by a black family in South Central LA, where she & her 2 brothers became Bloods. It was supposed to be an inspirational tale of how Margaret survived and eventually got out of gang life, etc. Well I was totally intrigued by this story of a young white girl growing up a blood, and I put it at the top of my must read list. Especially since EW's own Vanessa Suarez gave it an A rating (Suarez KNOWS her stuff).

Here's where it gets funny (stop me if ya heard it). Today I was reading through this weeks copy of EW and found a small blurp saying that the whole "memoir" was bullshit. Margaret B. Jones...I mean Margaret Seltzer, as it turns out is a big fat liar. I mean like liar liar pants on fire liar. There was no foster care or adoption, but she did go grow up in LA Just not South Central. And she attended private school. WAIT, it gets better, not just any private school though, NOOO, Ms Liar Liar attended private school WITH...wait for it...wait for it... the Olsen Twins! Certainly tough, but no South Central.

Ms. things sister came clean to the NYT on the 4th. Riverhead publishing is recalling all copies of the book and has issued an apology. OK so she shouldn't have claimed it was a true story, but at the same time, hell, if some whitebread from the school of Olsen can come up with a believable enough story about gang life in South Central LA that it begins to generate as much buzz as this book was already generating, doesn't that make her something more than just a good liar? Doesn't it make her a...hmmm...what's the word? OH, I don't know, doesn't it make her a good WRITER? I say slap a fiction label on those bad boys and let 'em sell. A story that inspires, inspires whether it's fact or fiction. That's a fact.

By the by, if any of you have a copy of this book, I'd sure like to get my hands on it. I wonder what it's going for on Ebay...



Oh yea, my Lost blog is up (see my rants list) and is a work in progress. It's a labor of love. Well more like obsession, actually...