Dude, it's not like Oprah made something up to turn people against James Frey, he was a liar who said what happened to him was true and it wasn't.
A book can be beautiful and poignant and not true, but when it is presented as true, as Briony's book is, then it ceases to be... oh, true. When people write their memoirs or autobiographies, they might change a date, or overexaggerate, or not mention something, but very rarely do they say, "well, my mom died when I was seven, but in my memoirs, I'm going to make her... not die. Because, well. I just... think the readers would like that better." Because that's... a lie. And therefore it should be fiction and not autobiographical or whatever.
Briony used her powers as a writer to give Robbie and Cecilia the happy ending in her book that was unattainable in real-life, without wedging herself into it.
Writing it at all was wedging herself into their lives. She was meddling. Again. Some more. Changing the ending for her readers makes it seem that Briony thinks less of her readers, who couldn't handle the ugly truth. It is selfish that Briony is essentially wrote fanfic to her sister's life. Briony might still be burdened by the truth, but she isn't doing it out of a feeling of obligation, she did it for her readers.
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A book can be beautiful and poignant and not true, but when it is presented as true, as Briony's book is, then it ceases to be... oh, true. When people write their memoirs or autobiographies, they might change a date, or overexaggerate, or not mention something, but very rarely do they say, "well, my mom died when I was seven, but in my memoirs, I'm going to make her... not die. Because, well. I just... think the readers would like that better." Because that's... a lie. And therefore it should be fiction and not autobiographical or whatever.
Briony used her powers as a writer to give Robbie and Cecilia the happy ending in her book that was unattainable in real-life, without wedging herself into it.
Writing it at all was wedging herself into their lives. She was meddling. Again. Some more. Changing the ending for her readers makes it seem that Briony thinks less of her readers, who couldn't handle the ugly truth. It is selfish that Briony is essentially wrote fanfic to her sister's life. Briony might still be burdened by the truth, but she isn't doing it out of a feeling of obligation, she did it for her readers.