The Apple

A few months ago it was revealed that Herman Rosenblat had invented his story about how he met his wife while he was imprisoned in the Buchenwald concentration camp, and she was a young girl from the nearby village who would give him apples through the fence. The revelation caused his book deal to be canceled.

But Gawker reports that York House Press is now turning his tale into a book anyway... they're just clearly labeling it as fiction. And they paid someone else to write it.

I think I understand York House Press' reasoning. They must have been impressed by how people like Oprah called Rosenblat's story the greatest love story ever told, and they figured that even though it's fake, it's still a great story. Thus the decision to put it out as a novel. The problem is, it was only a great story because people thought it was real. Once it's exposed as a fraud, it's no longer a great story. It then becomes a manipulative and exploitative story.

Literature/Language

Posted on Mon May 18, 2009


Comments

People might still be interested in it for fiction.
Posted by Maegan  on  Mon May 18, 2009  at  01:34 PM
Wonder who will pick up the rights to make it into a movie.
Posted by Vic K.  on  Mon May 18, 2009  at  02:27 PM
I distrust any book that actually has "A Novel" written on the front as a disclaimer.

Plus, 'misery lit' (as I believe it's called in literary circles) is God-awful. I really don't want to read these depressing stories of hardship and terrible times. They're not a relaxing or informative way to spend leisure time.

Besides, I think that genre will die the death fairly soon. Times are depressing as it is (if you believe the news) so I think there'll be a swing away from the depressing books about someone's hard life and how bad they've had it. I think pulp novels, thrillers and shockers (as they were once called) are going to have a renaissance.

They tend to become very popular in times of economic trouble.
Posted by Renquist  on  Mon May 18, 2009  at  05:22 PM
I'm wondering if, since they had someone new write the book, the original "author" gets any royalties or credit for thinking up the story idea. 😕

I am with Montaigne on the disposition of liars.

Since all we have to reach out to others outside ourselves, (and that means everyone but the voices in out heads) and must totally depend on the veracity of the information a speaker is presenting to us, it is a crime of the highest order to purposefully mislead one another. This only leads to a cheapening of communication as a whole and, as a result, an inability to meaningfully bridge the gap between us all. :shut:

Short and sweet that means liars like the original author should be shot. 😊
Posted by daveprime  on  Tue May 19, 2009  at  10:08 PM
:red: I meant to say:

Since speech is all we have......

Sorry. (Stupid posting monster!) 😠
Posted by daveprime  on  Tue May 19, 2009  at  10:12 PM
This is in answer to Vic K who wonders who will pick up the rights to make it into a movie. Actually, you've put the cart before the horse. The whole story started with a movie producer called Harris Salomon who had a deal to produce the heart-warming "Apples Over The Fence" story as a movie. When the story was exposed as a hoax, he was left holding the bag. Not a man to be swayed by facts, it was he who contracted York House Press to produce "The Apple" as a fictional fable. But this is not the end of the story for him. Watch this whiz at self-promotion take the story further and try to promote it as the greatest story ever sold.
Posted by Pierre66  on  Wed May 20, 2009  at  08:20 AM
I think there would have been less uproar if the story had been presented as fiction in the first place. The original author probably thought he would make more money by presenting it as an autobiography. I wonder if he was paid for his idea, since someone else is now writing it as a novel.

That being said, I probably won't read it, because that type of story generally depress the heck out of me.
Posted by Crafty Dragon  on  Sat May 23, 2009  at  12:49 PM
My novel, "Eat or Go Home" was originally entitled: " The Cumquat", loosely based on my experiences as a llama wrangler many years ago. I had to change the title when it was revealed to me that another book with a similar title already was published. Written in the 18th century by a Californio land baron, it was also based on llama wrangling, entitled: "Sniveling Liitle Ratfaced Gits and The Cumquat", so I relented and changed mine. It was only fair
Posted by Hairy Houdini  on  Tue May 26, 2009  at  11:43 AM
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