I recently finished the Oprah-sanctioned rehab-memoir A Million Little Pieces by James Frey and found it interesting but with more than a slight stink of bullshit on it. Between the now famous scene where the author has multiple root canals peformed on him without the help of pain killers to the improbably sensitive characters he meets in rehab it all felt more than a little fictionalized for the sake of making a good story.
The Smoking Gun has written a long article that proves that Frey took a lot of liberties with facts in the memoir that he has claimed to be "all true". They have dug up various legal records and testimonies from arresting officers that contradict some incidents he describes that were integral parts to the narrative he has written. Interestingly, TSG also publishes off the record comments by Frey himself that admit to fabricating and embellishing many details of his prior arrests (he pissed them off by posting parts of an email they had sent him on his own website so they took that as a waiver of confidentiality). There is also a true incident involving two girls that were killed in a train accident that Frey claims a peripheral involvement in as well as a significant relationship with one of the girls. Records and interviews seem to indicate otherwise.
It will be interesting to see if there is any fallout from this and if Oprah herself feels the need to address the issue.
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I read it when it first came out and the book sucks-I was shocked Oprah picked it. I have my fingers crossed for major fallout. Ideally, I'd like to hear that Frey is actually JT LeRoy. That'd be awesome, right?
YGA
I thought it was a little fishy when I read the book too how pretty much everybody he met in rehab ended up dead in the epilogue. TSG makes a pretty big deal of the lack of corroborating characters to question. I wonder if this will affect the upcoming movie? And will Oprah go back to choosing books by dead authors who can't cause any media trouble like Frey and Jonathan Franzen? Poor Oprah, just can't catch a break.
You said it man. Poor, poor Oprah. I feel her pain. Poor Oprah.
I read the book and really liked it, but found parts of it kind of hard to believe. When he was on Oprah, he didn't even mention Leonard. Not even once. That, I thought, was very strange considering what a major influence this guy was supposed to have been.
I have no problem with an author juicing up a story but to pass it off as fact? That kinda bums me out.
Just a side note..if anyone out there saw the Oprah show..did anyone else have a hard time picturing Frey, the quiet/serious Oprah guest as Frey, the protagonist of the book? Just wondering..
You people are idiots. It's only now that Oprah has called it a good book that people are reading it. Sheep. Have a brain and read a book on your own. And James Frey is not lying.
Funny, the only reason I considered reading it is that I liked the jimmies on the cover.
Hey, Kimmil? Chill pill, man. Plenty of people read the book before Oprah sanctioned it. It came out in 2003.
Further ridiculous info from today's Publishers Lunch:
Frey: Some Facts
Consumers posting on Oprah Winfrey's Book Club message board indicate that Random House is providing refunds to buyers of A MILLION LITTLE PIECES who call their customer service line to complain in the wake of the unanswered charges made by The Smoking Gun earlier this week. One correspondent posts: "Tell them you wanted fact not fiction.... They are very nice and will tell you how to return the book for a full refund..."
But after publication of this story in the morning edition of Deluxe, Reuters has followed with a piece focused on the refund program. They offer conflicting accounts of whether Random House is only accepting books purchased directly from the company (which would be almost none). In some calls, consumers were told to return books to the store where they purchased them, and to bring a receipt.
James Frey will appear on the Larry King Show tonight, though a spokesperson indicates to the AP that he "would not be interviewed for the entire hour-long program."
Agent Lynn Nesbit comments to the NY Observer, "This book will come and go, but the ripple effect could be much bigger if it causes Oprah to say, 'I don't want to get into this again,' This would be incredibly damaging for the book industry." The Observer adds, "If Ms. Winfrey were to turn against Mr. Frey, A Million Little Pieces could well become the Enron of the memoir boom."
Doubleday has offered more extensive comments in this statement: "Memoir is a personal history whose aim is to illuminate, by way of example, events and issues of broader social consequence. By definition, it is highly personal. In the case of Mr. Frey, we decided 'A Million Little Pieces' was his story, told in his own way, and he represented to us that his version of events was true to his recollections.
"Recent accusations against him notwithstanding, the power of the overall reading experience is such that the book remains a deeply inspiring and redemptive story for millions of readers."
Here's why this is an important story and why the last sentence in that Doubleday quote is dead wrong:
The key point in Frey's "memoir" is that he rebelled against the idea of addiction being a disease and of AA and the 12 Steps being the only way to overcome it. Instead he relied on inner strength and would claim to place himself in situations where he would have to resist the temptation of his addiction in order to become stronger. His "memoir", whether he intended it to or not, because it is supposed to be true could be taken as an example for others to follow on how to battle addiction. However, the facts about what Frey was actually addicted to and how he actually dealt with it are now suspect and any movement that he might inspire revolving around rejecting addiction as a disease or disregarding accepted methods for overcoming it could be very dangerous to follow.
It's a shame because that was what I had found to be the most interesting part of the book. How he found his own way and rejected the very Christian focused 12 steps that was being pushed on him by the critic. But that is only interesting if it is non-fiction and not made up.