My suspicion is that Kosinsi's point was to get famous and sell books.
He was, in fact, a plagiarist, is the consensus, and he did, in fact, use his purported "editors" as de facto ghost writers. I know one of them. She'd point out a passage that didn't make sense, or had some other problems, and he'd say, "Write whatever you want, then." And she did. When the expose occurred, she was called for comment, as were others known to have worked on his books, and declined to confirm what she'd told us privately. She had become an editor for a big publishing firm, and didn't want publicity as someone who edited-and-told.
I personally think that made up stuff that presents itself as autobiographical proves nothing about man's "inhumanity" to man. I even think it trivializes, or at least makes people suspicious of, true accounts of horror that should be credited.
And I am sorry I ever read The Painted Bird. It was traumatic, and I resent having suffered with the belief it was a true account even for the period I did. |
