In honor of April Fools’ Day, I was going to write about (in)famous literary hoaxes: historic incidents of made-up memoirs when an author manages to trick the entire reading public.

There are already a number of Top Ten Lists of these kinds of hoaxes, including one from the Guardian and another from ABC News. They include a handful of Holocaust memoirs and James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces.”

But then I started to think more about it.  What is a hoax, anyways, when dealing with literature?  Why do people allow themselves to feel betrayed by an author?  I’m going to hesitantly posit an idea:  The whole concept of a literary hoax is a dying one because of the advent of postmodern literature.

Okay, bear with me here. Read more »