Love and Consequences

Yet another fabricated memoir--this one was titled Love and Consequences: A Memoir of Hope and Survival by Margaret B. Jones (real name Margaret Seltzer). This gang memoir was purportedly about a multi-racial women living in South Central Los Angeles and how she survived the gangs, drugs, foster system, and violence. Ms. Seltzer was found out when her sister saw her profiled in the New York Times, along with a picture, and called the publisher to let them know. Seems pretty silly to me to allow your photograph to be in the paper, where someone you know is bound to see it, when you are trying to pull off this scam. Anyhow the real Margaret lived a fairly privileged life across town in the more upscale Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles. Her excuse for the scam is that the while working to end gang violence she met many people who lived the life she described and their stories needed to be told. Take a look at the article in the New York Times about her, or you can actually listen to an interview with her on NPR that was taped before her confession but never aired. Let us know how you feel about this--was she just trying to make a buck or was she genuinely trying to tell a story she thought needed to be heard?