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How a Mormon Housewife Turned a Fake Diary Into an Enormous Best-Seller by Casey Cep recounts the story of Beatrice Sparks, the true author behind the Go Ask Alice novel. The article opens with the influence of Sparks, who was a popular and prominent figure but had also been often untruthful about her expertise and experiences. Much of Sparks philosophy and teachings are focused on Mormon and conservative values for girls and young women. She would often support her opinions and insights with her abilities as a psychologist and counselor, though her education in either or any other field was unproven. As such, her involvement in the creation of Go Ask Alice, which focuses on a teenagers descent into drug abuse, poses a clear ulterior motive and potential hazards for the social understanding of drug-related issues.
Go Ask Alice was published in 1971 to much acclaim and presented as an edited but otherwise authentic diary of a teenage girl, which was far from the truth. Cep (2022) recites the contents of the novel in which the narrator lives in a Christian household but becomes upset after a move to which she cannot adapt. Following this, she tries LSD, quickly moving to more dangerous drugs such as heroin. Further in the novel, the narrator turns to prostitution and often relapses with drugs that lead to severe outcomes. The novel finishes with the narrator attempting to return to a more balanced life only for an editors note to let the readers know that she had passed away three weeks after the last entry. Cep (2022) recounts these elements of the novel, as well as the stylistic choices in order to emphasize the melodramatic nature of the novel. Despite this, few initial reviewers recognized the falsification of the diary and praised it for being realistic and important.
The article also observes the emergence of Rick Emersons Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the Worlds Most Notorious Diaries, a work that aims to analyze both Sparks and the influence of the novel. However, Cep (2022) explores that both authors fall subject to an ulterior motive that outweighs the initial positive message that was present in their works. Emerson completes his book with a hint that the real person behind the character of the narrator exists but will remain anonymous. Cep (2022) compares Emersons desire to debunk and Sparks anti-drug agenda to be of equal harm to individuals struggling with drug-related issues.
Sparks had grown up in Utah where she worked as a waitress alongside her mother after dropping out of high school. When she turned eighteen, she moved to Santa Monica and eventually married a Mormon. Together, they became wealthy through an investment in the Permian Basin and moved into a mansion in the fraud capital of the country, Provo, Utah. Sparks would later collaborate with Art Linkletter, whose daughter had committed suicide, and to whom Sparks sent a manuscript of Buried Alive: The Diary of an Anonymous Teenager.
The article traces the success of Go Ask Alice to the newly emerging market for young adult literature and the ways in which publishers worked to promote their products, whether they publicized honest statements or not. The controversy was a central marketing feature of Sparks novel and soon enough, Sparks expanded by publishing a further two books, but under her own name. Cep (2022) also cites that despite some of Sparks work being based on real incidents, her novels only worked to exploit and transform the narratives to serve her own agenda. These false diaries were compounded by marketing decisions that attempted to convince readers of the reality of the works in order to become more profitable.
References
Cep, C. (2022). How a Mormon Housewife Turned a Fake Diary Into an Enormous Best-Seller. The New Yorker. Web.
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