Book Review :: A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

James Frey’s memoir of drug addition and recovery was a bestseller even before Oprah Winfrey picked it for her book club in 2005, but the subsequent revelations about discrepancies between the story and the author?s real life touched off a national debate about the line between fact and fiction.

Filled with graphic scenes of epic substance abuse and the torments of withdrawal, A Million Little Pieces was widely heralded upon its publication as a harrowing, self-lacerating, and courageously confessional autobiography. It received many admiring critical reviews, carried cover endorsements from noted literati, and was selected by Barnes & Noble as a 2003 Discover pick. (Our reviewer called Frey “prodigiously talented, poetic, and unflinchingly honest”).

In January 2006, the author acknowledged the truth of charges that many details in the book were embellished or fabricated. In a note to readers that was prepared for subsequent printings, he apologized to those who felt they had been misled and explained why he wrote the book the way he did. Reactions to these revelations included soul-searching by publishers about their responsibilities for ensuring accuracy, ruminations by critics on the line between fact and fiction in modern culture, and spirited defenses of the author by readers who maintained that the book’s inspirational message was of primary importance. One thing seems certain: A Million Little Pieces is a book that promises to have a long-lasting impact.

- an excerpt from Barnes and Noble

I will say this much about the novel: Despite the fact that Frey lied that this was a memoir based on his “horrific” life as an alcoholic, addict, and criminal (his own words), I would have still read it!

The fictional piece is exactly what I would have loved to have seen more of in my English literature courses.  The writing is raw and graphic.  It is very personal, despite it not being the total truth.  If I didn’t know that this was indeed a fabrication of what someone wanted to redeem as a memoir of such a horrible phase in his life, I would have ended up feeling sorry for him and his experiences.  Instead, by knowing first-hand that he did indeed lie and embellish many details in the story to the point where many do not believe he ever even experienced even a tiny detail of this particular novel, allowed me to approach it as a piece of fiction. 

It is an exceptional piece of fiction at that!  I do not care what people want to say about the author, using the fact he embellished big time throughout the writing of this novel.  I will tell you this, it takes a very talented writer to be able to embellish details in the same manner Frey did when he was writing about the whole patient/therapy experience.  It takes a very talented writer to write the victim/antagonist as such a horrible person that drags those he loves through hell and back, only to have him become a hero to save a girl he loves, but barely knows.  To come so close to the drug that is his whole existence in addiction, yet to turn it away so easily in the name of love. 

That, ladies and gentleman, no matter if it is the blue truth or a total fabrication, is indeed a sign of true love for another person for someone to give up on something that is selfishly desired to help the one they love to be safe and healthy!

Without going into too much more of the actual story line, I want to give Frey a lot of credit for not only writing a great piece of fiction, but also finally stepping forward and admitting to what journalists dug up as lies within the novel.  It takes a LOT of guts and dignity to step forward and write a public apology and explanation.  No author truly has to do that.  They can live on and write again.  Many authors of great literary standing have done the same, and while they may have lived shame in their time, those classics and contemporary pieces still live on a great presence in our literary society!

 

Image credit goes to Advice Goddess.