Did Oprah Author Lift Passages from "Girl in the Italian Bakery" - The Valley Patriot, North Andover Massachusetts

Did Oprah Author lift Passages from "Girl in the Italian Bakery"?

Tom Duggan

Kenny Tingle, a Lawrence Native and Author of “The Girl in the Italian Bakery” says he never imagined his true story about growing up on the streets of Lawrence would be so successful.

But Tingle’s success, he says, may have led to another author being so enamored with his descriptions of growing up tough in the Merrimack Valley that “passages of my book were used in someone else’s book.”

Tingle sat down with the Valley Patriot last month with both his book and Haverhill Native, Andre Dubus’s book “Townie” which will soon become a movie.

The Valley Patriot was contacted by Dubus’s attorney prior to our publishing this interview and told our Attorney Peter Caruso that the author would not speak to us about the matter. Calls to his publisher also went unanswered.

VP: So you say that Andre Dubus used passages from your book for “Townie”. Can you give me some examples?”

Tingle: Sure, first let me say that I went out and bought Andre’s book because after a radio interview in Lowell it was recommended to me. I was excited another local author wrote about growing up in the Valley. But as I went through the book for pure enjoyment, I started to notice similarities. First I brushed it off,” he said. “I mean, we both grew up in this area so, of course there are going to be some similarities, some similar experiences. But the more I read his book, the more it became apparent to me that Dubus was not just sharing similar experiences but the way he phrased those experiences were, in some cases, identical.

For example, in one passage in my book I talked about a bully whom I gave the fictitious name “Paquette” (pg 23), it was a made up name because I didn’t want to use the guy’s real name. Dubus also, amazingly, had a bully in his book named Paquette (pg 178). Coincidence? Maybe. But in another passage I talked about how my brother fights off a bully with a broom(pg 24) and in his book his sister fights off a bully with a broom(pg 33) . My father “tousled Gary’s hair” (pg 83) he uses the same exact phrase that his father “tousled his hair.”(pg 379) I wrote about Mental Porter (pg 103) a crazy character everyone knew; he has Crazy Jack. (pg 297)

VP: Ok, but these are all similar experiences that a lot of people have. Maybe he just had the same type of experiences like many people growing up in that time?

Tingle: “And I understand what you are saying Tom, but there are over 30 “similar” experiences, and remember a family friend of his was at my most successful book signing. Sully Erna wrote a memoir about growing up in Lawrence. He is the same age as me and there are almost no similarities. The same goes for Michael McDonalds memoir, All Souls. He is roughly the same age as me, grew up in a housing project like me, and again there are few similarities. Our lives are so unique, there are so many things you can choose to write about. With Dubus’s book, it got to the point where I got out a highlighter to mark the pages where the passages are similar or in some cases exactly the same.

For instance, in my book I talked about a real experience where me and some friends go on a conveyor belt in an abandoned factory and turn on the machines(pg 109). In his book “Townie” he and his friends go on a conveyor belt in an abandon factory and turn on the machines (pg 52). I mean come on? The wording is almost identical. Like I said it’s not just that he was borrowing my experiences, he used almost the same wording I did. There are over 30 “similarities” between the two books. He had the same type of dream I did, can only find the same book in a time of despair, even a chunk of the last chapter is similar. I don’t know what to do about this, I’m not really interested in hiring a lawyer or anything like that, but I worked very hard on this book. I wrote it from scratch. I didn’t go and read someone else’s book to get ideas about how to phrase things or borrow their experiences. I sat down and wrote about my life. Mr. Dubus, it looks to me anyway, read my book and liked some of what I wrote and used it in his book.

Right now I would just like to sit down with his publisher and show them everything. But they have yet to even respond. And now they are talking about making his book into a movie. I just don’t think that’s right. Hollywood can make whatever movie they like, but if there are parts of my book in the movie we have a problem. If the publisher just takes an hour or so to look at both books as I have pointed out, they will see there are experiences he claims to have that came right out of “The Girl in the Italian Bakery” Here is a strange one: I see the bloated body of a drowning victim (pg 170) and so does he (pg 35 ) How bizarre is that!

VP: Looking at both books, it seems like there are similarities but wouldn’t you expect that if you picked up any two books of people who lived in the same area growing up at the same time? You don’t really think he stole from your book? Andre Dubus is an Oprah Book list author, it’s not like he has to steal material to pull off a publication.

Tingle: Yeah he is an Oprah Author, and I think that’s why he thought he could get away with it. Look I have read a lot of books about people growing up in this area, particularly the ones I mentioned above, and there are zero comparisons. Zero similarities. I believe that he [Dubus] read my book and that is what gave him the idea to write his book. This is his fifth book, why suddenly a memoir?

Look at these two passages: In my book, I have this unattainable, dark haired “dream girl” that I went out of my way to walk by where she worked just to see her. I write that I dream of “holding her close” and “smelling the shampoo in her dark beautiful hair.”(pg 173, 174) In “Townie” he has a dark haired, unattainable dream girl that he finally gets to give a hug and “smells the shampoo in her hair.”(pg 148,149) He could have described that a million different ways but he didn’t. He described it the same way I did.

But I think one of the really telling passages in “Townie”, if you read both books, and I hope people do, is where I say in my book that my dad “never told me he loved me and I never said it to him either.”(pg 177) Now I’m sure a lot of kids had this experience with their dad, or some significant man in their life. But in his book he says, “I knew that my grandfather had never told my father he loved him, and my father had never said those three words back.”(pg 366). How can you say something “back” to someone who never said it to begin with. Some of the similar passages don’t even fit with the story he is telling around it. He tried to change the line a little, but in doing so it no longer made sense.

In another passage I write about how, after a night of violence, I stand in the light of dawn pondering life (pg 213). After a night of violence he also stands in the light of dawn pondering life(pg 229). It’s eerie, I’m telling you I bought this book just to read it, but the more passages I found the more frustrated I got.

My book came out in 2008 and I’ve gotten a lot of publicity, especially locally. To me, it looks like he read my book and used some of my ideas. As a writer I don’t go looking to take other people’s work and passing it off as my own and I never in my life thought that someone would do that to me, but I don’t know, you tell me. You look at both books and you judge for yourself.

OK, say he just had similar experiences, did he have the same dream too? In my book I talk about having a dream with religious significance (pg 171), I talk about laying in bed in desperation staring at the wall, looking for something to read, and all I could find was a bible (pg 232). Almost the exact same scenario for him (pgs 342-346). For me, those two are the smoking guns. And here’s the kicker. This one is really stunning. In my final chapter I drive down the familiar streets of Lawrence, looking at certain places, landmarks, places that were important to me. I describe it in vivid detail because I can still remember it like it was yesterday. It’s about a page and a half where I describe this (pg 234, 235). In Dubus’s final chapter he is somewhere else and “visualizes” he is driving around all the familiar streets of Haverhill, memories coming back, naming landmarks just like me and his is also around a page and a half (385). I mean look, there were a lot of things that I just dismissed as us having the same experiences, we both worked at restaurants, we both worked out at the YMCA, ….but we both encounter anti-Semitism? Come on, some of this stuff is just way too coincidental. I’d like you to call him and ask him. If he will take your call I would like to know what he has to say about all this. I don’t begrudge anyone writing a book and being successful. This isn’t about jealousy or anything like that. I just don’t think it’s right and people need to know.

VP: Is it possible that Mr. Dubus read your book when it came out and when he was writing his book some of what you wrote was so good it just stuck in his head? I guess what I am asking is: is it possible that some of what you wrote ended up in his book by osmosis, that he didn’t intend to lift passages but when you read a lot, sometimes certain things stick in your head and without realizing it you end up quoting someone without even realizing where you got it or that you are using someone else’s idea? It does happen a lot.

Tingle: Look, anything is possible, and if it was one or two passages that were similar it wouldn’t be an issue for me. But I found 33 “coincidences” in his book and even if I dismissed passages like: we both talk about Store 24, we both had a gang of brothers that fight amongst themselves, etc., there’s really no accounting for the way he describes what are supposed to be his experiences.

I described how I was walking in the spring and smell the “damp earth, lilac bushes and everything else that grows and gives off a fragrance” (pg 35). In the spring Mr. Dubus smells the “damp earth, budding flowers I couldn’t name” (pgs 63,137 ) There are a million different ways he could have described some of his experiences but the wording and the circumstances are so incredibly similar that it’s hard for me to believe this was just some kind of mistake. I’m not saying he didn’t have some of the experiences he writes about, he probably did in some form or another, but the way he phrases things and lays it out, especially that last chapter makes me wonder how he thought he could get away with it. He is a professional writer, he knows better.”

VP: What are you looking for in all this? Are you looking for money, credit on his book, credit on the movie rights?
Tingle: I don’t know, to be honest with you. I think if he had returned my call or his publisher had returned my calls and just spoke with me about it, maybe some of this could have a reasonable explanation but I really would love to ask him about some of the passages that are almost word for word. I’d love an explanation about the last chapter. I don’t know what I want out of this but I do know that I want people in the Valley to understand that my book, “The Girl in the Italian Bakery” is an original work. It’s real, it really happened the way I wrote it. And his, it seems are some of his experiences described with my words, and I suspect that at least some of those experiences never happened at all. I will say this, if any of my material ends up in his movie I will have to do something. Whether that means getting a lawyer or demanding writer’s credit, I don’t know. But for now I just want people to know when they read “Townie” that much of what is in that book is also in my book and my book came out first by a few years.

Andre Dubus, through his attorney refused to be interviewed about this matter but the Valley Patriot’s offer to discuss it is an open invitation as we are committed to telling both sides of any story.

The Girl in The Italian Bakery by Lawrence author Kenny Tingle is published by (Tate) and can be purchased at Amazon.com

Townie by Author Andre Dubus III is published by (W.W. Norton) and can be purchased on Amazon.com.