Reviewed by Evelyn Hartogh

In a discussion with publishers and journalists Jennifer Byrnes Presents: Hoaxes examines the public fascination and fall-outs from famous recent literary hoaxes.  The books and authors discussed hold in common a fictional identity and fictional past that are presented to the public as real-life experiences.  The panel, hosted by Jennifer Byrnes, discusses the literary merits of these books, and the revelation of the hoaxes, likening the scandals to forms of performance art or street theatre.

For panelist Malcolm Knox, who discovered that Norma Khouri's book about honour killings was fabricated, the downside of a hoax can be that similar genuine stories can lose credibility in the eyes of the public.  However, panelists John Bayley, Michael Heywood, and Jack Marx, comment that hoaxes can have the political function of exposing bias in the publishing community. Bayley was involved in the publication of a book allegedly written by indigenous woman, Wanda Koolmatrie.  Bayley was motivated to demonstrate a bias on the part of publishers towards the work of women and people of colour, at the expense of white male writers.   

Heywood has researched and written The Ern Malley Affair (1993), which looks at the fictional poet, and an attempt to mock poetry itself, by poets James McAuley and Harold Stewart.  Again, this hoax was purposeful in casting doubt on the ways in which literary merit is accorded to authors, when merit is often based more on personality rather than writing ability. Jack Marx had interviewed Helen Darville/Demidenko and says she raised the issue of how easy it was for her to masquerade as 'ethnic' and thus gain greater accolades and rewards than she may have as a plain white author.

The panelists tend to praise publishers who withdrew books once a hoax was revealed, but also make the point that a book may survive a hoax if it was well written to start with.  However, a poorly written book will rely heavily on its claim to 'truth'; the loss of this status will mean the book loses not only credibility but also readability.

In thirty-minutes, Jennifer Byrnes deftly manages to conduct a discussion and debate that does not shy from serious issues, while, at the same time, manages to have many wonderful humorous moments.  Byrnes even manages to extract a grudging confession from one of her panelists that they are aware of even more "fabricated authors", even though the panelist in question says they "cannot confirm or deny if any of them are published." Jennifer Byrnes Presents: Hoaxes is delightful viewing, and a fascinating topic that deserves it own entire series!

Jennifer Byrne Presents: Hoaxes
Screening on ABC1 on 10:05pm Tuesday, 10 Mar 2009