Randy Kennedy on “A Million Little Pieces”

Read the New York Times’ Randy Kennedy on whether readers expect truth in the memoir here. If the overarching message is more important than the facts, then what is the use of categorizing the book as “nonfiction” or “fiction” to begin with? Note that several publishers rejected Frey’s manuscript when he submitted it as a novel, before Doubleday accepted it and decided to market it as factual. What do publishers owe to their buyers? What do writers owe to their readers?