Yes, of course. (I think you mean “imply,” by the way, rather than “infer.”) And really, at this point, what difference does it make? Alex Haley’s story is a total fabrication... Kwanzaa is a fabrication... Lots of things taught in schools are fabrications! It doesn’t really matter, does it?
Nope. Two uses of imply:
1) When someone is trying to get you to infer something. In this case, I refer to the inference of a reader, not the implication of an author.
2) When a conclusion is logically necessary. In this case, the inference may be reasonably, but is not logically required by the data presented.