More and more, memoirs have become touchy. If the defining quality of a memoir is meant to be the truth than increasingly authors have been found to toe the line between truth and fiction. According to a new biography by David Maraniss, President Obama may be one of the memorists who is blurring the confines of truth.

The president who has written two books on his life, "Dreams from my Father" and "The Audacity of Hope," has long touted a racially-charged narrative on his life, which he's used as the basis for his run for president and for his call for national reconciliation and hope. Maraniss' book, however, claims that Obama's life narrative was not as dramatic as he asserted in his books.  Moreover, the author says that the president had mixed up facts and embellished details in order to dramatize his and his family's history.

As reported in the New York Times by Michael D. Shear, "the most dramatic (inaccuracy) was that of Mr. Obama's New York girlfriend. In the book by Mr. Maraniss, the president acknowledges that some of the events he describes as taking place with the New York girlfriend actually took place with another woman he dated in Chicago."

Maraniss writes that the president most likely fabricated some details because " he wanted to advance a theme, another thread of thought in his musings about race," Mr. Maraniss writes in the book.

Maraniss also finds out that although the president said that his step-grandfather was killed while fighting Dutch troops in Indonesia, he in fact died while hanging drapes.  The author attributes this to family lore, which he says, are commonly overstated.

Many believe that Maraniss' book will be used by Republicans during the upcoming presidential campaign to discredit the President.