I think a book has to be 99-100% true to be considered as nonfiction because readers will believe it is true once it has been labeled as nonfiction. I like to quote books knowing that the facts contained in the quote are true. I think many people find memoirs to be inspiring because they can relate to the character in a real sense. The reader can know that someone else has REALLY overcome what they might be struggling with. If the genre was fiction, the reader might still relate to the character in the novel, but wouldn't be as inspired because it was an imaginary character who was bound to overcome the obstacle anyway. If the author was lying about the facts from the memoir, the reader wouldn't be able to trust that author anymore. If you were the reader who just put a lot of time and emotion into reading the memoir, but found out that some/many of the facts were false, would you be disappointed? I would! I think a reader's trust can change the way they look at the memoir and the author.
I do think it's okay for authors to assume certain things, but I don't think it's okay for the author to change events in the story that he/she knew were making the memoir inaccurate. I think it's okay for the author to write certain dialogue that reflects what happened in an event from their childhood, or event from recent years. I don't think any big facts like, marrige, race, family, or religion should be changed. These all have a big impact on the story and the reader.
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