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Phony Holocaust Memoir Canned
The Holocaust memoir based on what Oprah called "the single greatest love story" has been canned. Berkley Books has cancelled the publication of Angel at the Fence and demanded that the author, Herman Rosenblat, pay back his money. Rosenblat is an actual Holocaust survivor, but his story of meeting his future wife through a concentration camp (he claimed she threw food over to help him survive) seems to have been invented. Rosenblat's story was questioned in an article in The New Republic last week. In a statement, Rosenblat said, "I wanted to bring happiness to people. I brought hope to a lot of people. My motivation was to make good in this world."
When is Oprah going to learn to get out of the book business?
I think a better move would be for bad writers to stop writing, so their over-the-top stories that no one wants as fiction don't turn into dishonest "memoirs." There are legitimately good memoirs and memoir writers out there who are getting skewered because of this crap.
this is absolutely ridiculous already. one has to wonder why oprah doesn't have some sort of screening process for her book club memoirs. whats the old adage? fool me once, shame on you..fool me twice..shame on me. with oprah, we may need to tack on a "fool me thrice"
i whole heartily agree with bamilt0 -- except that it seems that the bad writers dont realize they are bad. in which case agents and publishers need to keep their eyes a little more open.
also, i heard this story a few months ago - it was sent around in one of those email chain letters. i knew then that there was something fishy with this story (the first hint was that it was one of those annoying fwds..). if i knew there was something wrong...why didn't any of the publishers, movie studios or oprah know?!
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