Memoir = not necessarily true

Perhaps I'm the wrong person to try to convince, but a book is a book is a book. If it touches the heart of a reader, be it fact or fiction (or audio), that is all that matters. There are plenty of books out there that stretch the truth more than a little, and as they were superbly written, it didn't matter, as they touched the spirit.
I was privy to a small post-Oprah's confrontation conversation among girls at work today regarding the James Frey book, A Million Little Pieces (cover art to the left). Only a couple have read the tome, and more hadn't (include me in that group), but one or two mentioned that, as he has now confessed to truth stretching, they maybe wouldn't finish it, but certainly wouldn't like it anymore. This, I think, is a mistake. Appreciate a book for the story, not the author. Did the characters in the book reach an emotional core? That's a special thing, if they did. Were readers inspired to better themselves and those around them from reading the book? Yes? Then that, in itself, is worth all the book royalties in the world.
Oprah was indignant that she'd been "duped." Had she? Billed as a memoir, the book is inherently not an autobiography, and therefore subject to the author's poetic license and subjective opinions, feelings and interpretations of events. Perhaps if The Smoking Gun hadn't headlined their article on the book something along the lines of, "the man who duped Oprah," she wouldn't have gotten so upset. She mentions that her credibility was on the line because she promoted the book on her book club. Nonsense. No one can argue that it was a well-read book that inspired people -- especially drug addicts looking for help.
Frey's next book is reportedly a novel (read that word as a FICTIONAL ACCOUNT OF EVENTS, CHARACTERS AND CONVERSATIONS). The big question though is whether this brouhaha will vilify the author enough to keep readers away. Should this particular book be on par with To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, and War and Peace, the real shame will be the millions of people who won't read it due to their own misinterpretations of the first book's genre.
Again, it comes down to whether or not the book touched the heart and soul of the reader. No book has to be fact to do that.