Misery lit

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Misery lit (mis lit, misery memoirs, misery porn) is a term ostensibly coined by The Bookseller magazine^[1] that describes a genre of biographical literature mostly concerned with the protagonist's triumph over personal trauma or abuse, often during childhood (because of the recovery dimension of the genre, some publishers refer to it as "inspirational lit", or "inspi-lit"). The genre is generally considered to be American in origin, but eventually became wildly popular in Britain as well.^[2]

Contents 1 The genre 2 Popularity 2.1 Criticism 2.2 Literary hoaxes 3 See also 4 References

[edit] The genre

Works in the genre typically--though not exclusively--begin in the subject's childhood, and very often involve suffering some wrong, physical or sexual abuse, or neglect, perpetrated by an adult authority figure, often a parent. These tales usually culminate in some sort of emotional catharsis, redemption or escape from the abuse or situation. They are often written in the first person.^[2]

The readership for these books is estimated to be "80% or 90% female".^[3] Roughly 80% of the sales of misery lit books are made not in conventional bookstores but in mass-market outlets such as Asda and Tesco.^[1]

Most critics trace the beginning of the genre to A Child Called "It", a 1995 memoir by American Dave Pelzer, in which he details the outrageous abuse he suffered at the hands of his alcoholic mother. The book quickly became a bestseller in the U.S. and abroad.^[2] Pelzer's first three books--all recovery narratives dealing with his childhood--spent a combined total of 448 weeks on the New York Times paperback nonfiction bestseller list.^[4]

Jung Chang's Wild Swans (1992) and Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes (1996) are also seen as seminal works establishing the genre.^[5]

Notable British authors of the genre include Kathy O'Beirne, Toni Maguire, Lyndsey Harris, Jenny Tomlin, Duncan Fairhurst, Cathy Glass, and Julia Latchem-Smith.

[edit] Popularity

Misery lit has been described as "the book world's biggest boom sector".^[6] Works in the genre comprised 11 of the top 100 bestselling English paperbacks of 2006, selling nearly two million copies between them.^[1] The Waterstone’s chain of British book retailers even instituted a discrete "Painful Lives" section; Borders followed suit with "Real Lives".^[1]

[edit] Criticism

Some of the genre's authors have said they write in order to come to terms with their traumatic memories, and to help readers do the same.^[7] Supporters of the genre also claim the genre's popularity indicates a growing cultural willingness to directly confront topics--specifically child sexual abuse--that once would have been ignored or swept under the rug.

However, a common criticism of the genre is the suggestion that its appeal lies in prurience and voyeurism.^[8] The Times writer Carol Sarler suggests the popularity of the genre indicates a culture "utterly in thrall to pedophilia". Other critics locate the genre's popular appeal in its combination of moral outrage and titillation.^[1]

[edit] Literary hoaxes

In recent years, several high-profile works in this genre have been exposed as false:

Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years by Misha Defonseca published in 1997 is another recent example of the genre, a book said to be "the most extraordinary story of World War II". It has now been shown to be a forgery, with fabricated and imaginary incidents about a six-year old girl and her relationship with wolves in her attempt to avoid concentration camps. In February 2008, Defonseca publicly admitted that her memoir was false. Her real name was Monique de Wael. While her parents were in fact taken away by the Nazis, they were not Jews but Catholic members of the Belgian Resistance, and she did not leave her home during the war to find them, as the book depicts. In a statement released through her lawyers to the Brussels newspaper Le Soir, Defonseca said that the story of Misha "is not actual reality, but was my reality, my way of surviving" and that there were moments when she "found it difficult to differentiate between what was real and what was part of my imagination."

Kathy's story, by Kathy O'Beirne (2005), is a claimed account of the abuse the author suffered when being brought up in a Magdalene laundry in Ireland. Investigations showed that the author had lied about her age, education and alleged adoption.^[9]

A book by Margaret Seltzer called Love and Consequences, allegedly the autobiography of a mixed race girl raised on the streets of Los Angeles. It described in detail a life of drugs, sex and gangs. It received rave reviews in the New York Times, but was later revealed by the author's sister to be a hoax. The author was actually raised in a white middle class family and went to a good school miles from any ghetto. It has been withdrawn from sale by Penguin Books in the USA as of March 2008.

[edit] See also

• Literary forgery
• Fake memoirs

[edit] References