Book Review: Memoirs and Misinformation

By Ryland Johnson

For many, literary genres such as creative nonfiction or “biofictionalization” are difficult because there is a blurring between life and art or truth and fiction. When art destabilizes reality, it tends to make people nervous, sometimes even angry. The true state of our time is that our reality is less stable and less complete than many of us would like to believe. The same is true with the identities we construct for ourselves, particularly as we project our images of self into the world by way of so many devices and virtual platforms. Memoirs and Misinformation, by Jim Carrey and Dana Vachon, addresses the erosion of self we experience in our current paradoxical isolation, as now we are both completely on our own and constantly connected to the disembodied public viewer through social media, by playing with the trope of celebrity breakdown.

The book follows Jim Carrey, who is not doing so well, down the rabbit hole of mental collapse — meanwhile, it’s the apocalypse. It’s a prescient premise, to be sure. Aren’t we all going through this? It’s also particularly seductive because it immediately acknowledges the primary drive of our fascination with celebrity: our immediate suspension of disbelief when it comes to the identification process.

Celebrities are just like us, aren’t they? In the initial moments of the memoir, Carrey wrestles with the anxiety that comes from the idea that when he dies, people will take selfies with his corpse. It’s a subtle reminder that the author is dead. It is the viewer, ultimately, who builds meaning out of a narrative.

The madcap style of the prose is entertaining, and the book carries a lively pace throughout. There’s plenty of juicy, Hollywood-insider moments that, true or not, satisfy our reptilian desire for the gossip and scandal we expect in celebrity biographies.

Carrey and Vachon’s creative approach to narrativizing the life of the subject allows for philosophical reflection. Memoirs and Misinformation feels very of-the-moment because we, too, are struggling with isolation and disconnection, even as we reach out to each other via our little screens.