Ellen Hopkins’ bestselling verse novels, Crank and
Glass, are based on her real-life experience with her
daughter’s teenage methamphetamine addiction. In her author’s note in
Crank, she says, “While this work is fiction, it is loosely
based on a very true story—my daughter’s.”

Certainly, Hopkins’
direct experience with the consequences of crack addiction inform and
lend authenticity to her fiction. Hopkins wrote non-fiction before she
became a novelist, so clearly, she has the skills to succeed in that
world. Yet she chose to tell her true story in novel form. Why would she
do that?

The first problem memoirists encounter these days is
convincing skeptical readers that they are telling the truth, thanks to
several high-profile memoir scandals that have scalded an
already-cynical public.

The most famous example of memoir gone
wrong is James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, a gritty,
supposedly true story of crime, addiction, and redemption. It sold
millions of copies after it was chosen for Oprah’s Book Club and Frey
appeared on Oprah.

Shortly after, The Smoking Gun
website exposed Frey as an unsuccessful novelist who parleyed his
history of drug addiction and minor arrest into a sensational memoir
larded with exaggerations and made-up events. In real life, an
intoxicated Frey drives over a curb. In AMLP, he drives over a
police officer. That distinction proved to be important to many
readers.

Frey isn’t the only offender. In her  …