Misery lit

Shelves full of 'misery lit' at WHSmith

Misery lit, also called misery literature, misery porn, misery memoirs and trauma porn, is a literary genre dwelling on trauma, mental and physical abuse, destitution, or other enervating trials suffered by the protagonists or, allegedly, the writer (in the case of memoirs). While in a broad sense the genre is as at least as old as mass-market fiction (e.g., Les Misérables), the terms misery lit and misery porn are usually applied pejoratively to steamy potboilers, schlock horror, and lurid autobiographical wallows of dubious authenticity, especially those without a happy ending.

Works in the genre typically—though not exclusively—begin in the subject's childhood, and very often involve suffering some mistreatment, physical or sexual abuse, or neglect, perpetrated by an adult authority figure, often a parent or guardian. These tales usually culminate in some sort of emotional catharsis, redemption or escape from the abuse or situation. They are often written in the first person. It is also sometimes called "pathography."

Helen Forrester was credited with inventing the misery memoir genre with the bestseller Twopence to Cross the Mersey in 1974. Critics such as Pat Jordan and Geraldine Bedell trace the beginning of the genre to A Child Called "It", a 1995 memoir by American Dave Pelzer, in which he details the abuse he claims to have suffered at the hands of his alcoholic mother, and two subsequent books which continue the story. Pelzer's three books—all recovery narratives dealing with his childhood-created considerable controversy, including doubt as to the veracity of the claims. While the books spent a combined total of 448 weeks on the New York Times paperback nonfiction bestseller list, Pelzer acknowledges purchasing and reselling many thousands of his own books.

Jung Chang's Wild Swans (1992) and Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes (1996) are seen by Shane Hegarty as seminal works establishing the genre.

Popularity

In 2007, misery lit was described as "the book world's biggest boom sector" by Anthony Barnes in The Independent. Works in the genre comprised 11 of the top 100 bestselling English paperbacks of 2006, selling nearly 2 million copies between them. The Waterstones chain of British book retailers even instituted a discrete "Painful Lives" section; Borders Books followed suit with "Real Lives". At the WHSmith chain, the section is titled "Tragic Life Stories"; in each case side-stepping the awkward dilemma of whether to categorize the books under fiction or non-fiction.

The readership for these books is estimated to be "80% or 90% female". Roughly 80% of the sales of misery lit books are made not in conventional bookstores but in mass-market outlets such as Asda and Tesco.

Criticism

Some of the genre's authors have said they write in order to come to terms with their traumatic memories, and to help readers do the same. Supporters of the genre state the genre's popularity indicates a growing cultural willingness to directly confront topics—specifically child sexual abuse—that once would have been ignored or swept under the rug.

However, a common criticism of the genre is the suggestion that its appeal lies in prurience and voyeurism. The Times writer Carol Sarler suggests the popularity of the genre indicates a culture "utterly in thrall to paedophilia". Other critics locate the genre's popular appeal in its combination of moral outrage and titillation.

Literary hoaxes

"Misery lit" has been proven to be a popular genre for literary hoaxes in which authors claim to reveal painful stories from their past.

One early such hoax was the 1836 book Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, or, The Hidden Secrets of a Nun's Life in a Convent Exposed, by Maria Monk, which claimed to tell of Monk's abuse in a convent. The book was a fabrication, and although it contained a variety of factual errors, it became a widely read bestseller for several decades as it capitalized on anti-Catholic sentiment in the United States.

The Holocaust has been the subject of several notable literary hoaxes by authors who either falsely claim to have lived through it, or were in fact Holocaust survivors but falsified their experiences. Such hoaxes include The Painted Bird (1965) by Jerzy Kosinski, Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood (1995) by Binjamin Wilkomirski, Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years (1997) by Misha Defonseca and Angel at the Fence by Herman Rosenblat (which was planned to be published in 2009, but publication was cancelled).

Two works that sparked moral panics in the United States are Sybil (1973) by Flora Rheta Schreiber and Michelle Remembers (1980) by Lawrence Pazder. Sybil tells the “true story” of a woman suffering from multiple personality disorder (now known as dissociative identity disorder) and the psychoanalyst, Cornelia B. Wilbur, who “cures” her. Both Sybil and Michelle Remembers promoted the idea of repressed memories and forgotten childhood traumas. Sybil was also adapted into a television film, and following the book and movie, diagnoses of multiple personality disorder increased while Michelle Remembers served as the spark for the Satanic panic. The factual accuracy of both works has since been disputed. Journalist Debbie Nathan, in her book Sybil Exposed, discusses how psychoanalyst Wilbur, Shirley Mason (the real person behind Sybil), and Schreiber (the author of Sybil) carried out a deception—partly knowingly, partly under self-delusion—in order to sell books, the film, and other products through a sensational story.

American Laurel Rose Willson has posed as both a victim of satanic ritual abuse and a Holocaust survivor. She wrote the 1988 book Satan's Underground under the pseudonym Lauren Stratford. After being exposed, she began posing as a concentration camp survivor named Laura Grabowski. She also posed with another impostor, Binjamin Wilkomirski. As Stratford, she also wrote an "autobiography" called Stripped Naked, about her multiple personality disorder.

Some memoirs of suffering have included elements of both truth and fiction. These include I, Rigoberta Menchú (1983) by Rigoberta Mechú (a book that won Menchú the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992), and A Million Little Pieces (2003) by James Frey. The latter was initially marketed as non-fiction, and attracted considerable controversy when it was revealed that significant portions of it were fabricated.

See also

• Literary forgery
• Fake memoirs
• Grief porn
• Gallows humor
• Grimdark

External links

• Literary Hoaxes and the Ethics of Authorship. The New Yorker. December 3, 2018.
• The Case Against the Trauma Plot. The New Yorker. December 27, 2021.
• The Identity Hoaxers. The Atlantic. March 16, 2021.