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  • First published by Doubleday Publishing April 15th, 2003.
  • Marketed as the true and inspiring story of James Frey's struggle with drug addiction

Reception

  • Initially met with mixed reviews, although general consensus of critics and readers was that the book was an outstanding literary achievement
  • Sold fairly well early on

“Gripping.... A great story.... You can't help but cheer his victory.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

“James Frey’s staggering recovery memoir could well be seen as the final word on the topic.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“The most lacerating tale of drug addiction since William S. Burroughs’ Junky.” —The Boston Globe

“Frey’s book sets itself apart ... spare, deadpan language belies the horror of what he’s describing — a meltdown dispatched in telegrams.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Anyone who has ever felt broken and wished for a better life will find inspiration in Frey’s story.” —People

“Ripping, gripping.... It’s a staggeringly sober book whose stylistic tics are well-suited to its subject matter, and a finger in the eye of the culture of complaint.... Engrossing.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer

“A frenzied, electrifying description of the experience.” —The New Yorker

“Frey comes on like the world’s first recovering-addict hero.... [His] criticism of the twelve-step philosophy is provocative and his story undeniably compelling.” —GQ

“Frey will probably be hailed in turn as the voice of a generation.” —Elle

  • Given “Starred Review” (designated as outstanding) by Booklist
  • Officially endorsed and picked up by Oprah's book club in september 2005
  • Following Oprah's endorsement, the book was launched into public conscioussness and reached even greater recognition and acheivements:
  • Became the number one non-fiction paperback sold on Amazon
  • Topped the New York Times best seller list for fifteen weeks straight
  • Has since been translated in 22 different languages
  • Sold 3.5 million copies by 2006

But Pride Always comes before...

January 8th, 2006

Investigative website The Smoking Gun publishes article revealing Frey's "memoir" to be fraudulent:

  • Frey embellished, falsified, and fabrictated many events from the book
  • claimed to be in a real train accident, which he wasn't present for
  • Wrote about the suicide of his girlfriend Lily, who there are no records of ever existing in the first place

Some choice critcisms:

  • "I feel that you betrayed millions of readers”-Oprah
  • "There's one other difference between Frey and me. His book has sold three and a half million copies; mine has sold—well, let's just say fewer than that. I could be angry that a cynical hack job is a runaway bestseller, while a wrenching, factually accurate memoir that I sweated to get right, and sent out to the world with fear and trembling, praying I was worthy to call myself a writer, has garnered a more modest following... "I have read the New Testament," Frey says. He should read it again. He should read the passage where Jesus tells the paralytic to take up his mat and walk. Because maybe our mat—what keeps us stuck, sometimes our whole lives—is the illusion that, in order to be loved, we have to pretend to be bigger, better, braver than we really are."- Post-scandal review by recovered addict Heather King for Publisher's Weekly

Consequences

Achievements

  • Public backlash against Frey's actions
  • Publisher's note, author's note added to new editions
  • Refunds and lawsuits
  • New, damning reviews
  • A public discourse about the importance of truth
  • The wrath of Oprah

Reviews:

The Fall

But...(in defense of James Frey)

  • Both Oprah and Frey's two original publishing houses originally stood by and defended Frey
  • As New York Times columnist James Poniewozik points out, Oprahs outrage was "a fury that, nonetheless, took about two weeks to materialize after she called in to Larry King Live to defend Frey during his appearance there."
  • “Memoir – the word literally means ‘my story.’ A memoir is a subjective retelling of events.”-James Frey

Conclusion:

Perhaps the industry itself:

So...

Who's really to blame?

The publishing industry is a fickle, sometimes hypocritical beast. Also, never f**K with Oprah (I know I wouldn't).

  • Certain literary minds see this outrage as not only stemming from attempts to save the reputations of those who orginally endorsed the book: "In a society obsessed with sin and redemption, this was the superfecta: Oprah admitting her flawed judgment and rescuing her reputation, while carving up James Frey for sinning in his book about sin and redemption”-New York Times Columnist and author Maureen Dowd
  • But also see the scandal as possibly being cause by the industry and the readers who fuel it. As American author and essayist Siri Hustdvedt notes:
  • "Fake or partly faked autobiographical works would not exist if they were not valued more highly than fiction in the contemporary American marketplace. When Frey’s book was first submitted as a novel, it was met with rejection”

A Million Little Pieces

Inside Flap:

Intense, unpredictable, and instantly engaging, A Million Little Pieces is a story of drug and alcohol abuse and rehabilitation as it has never been told before. Recounted in visceral, kinetic prose, and crafted with a forthrightness that rejects piety, cynicism, and self-pity, it brings us face-to-face with a provocative new understanding of the nature of addiction and the meaning of recovery.

By the time he entered a drug and alcohol treatment facility, James Frey had taken his addictions to near-deadly extremes. He had so thoroughly ravaged his body that the facility’s doctors were shocked he was still alive. The ensuing torments of detoxification and withdrawal, and the never-ending urge to use chemicals, are captured with a vitality and directness that recalls the seminal eye-opening power of William Burroughs’ Junky.

But A Million Little Pieces refuses to fit any mold of drug literature. Inside the clinic, James is surrounded by patients as troubled as he is -- including a judge, a mobster, a one-time world-champion boxer, and a fragile former prostitute to whom he is not allowed to speak ó but their friendship and advice strikes James as stronger and truer than the clinic’s droning dogma of How to Recover. James refuses to consider himself a victim of anything but his own bad decisions, and insists on accepting sole accountability for the person he has been and the person he may become--which runs directly counter to his counselors' recipes for recovery.

James has to fight to find his own way to confront the consequences of the life he has lived so far, and to determine what future, if any, he holds. It is this fight, told with the charismatic energy and power of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, that is at the heart of A Million Little Pieces: the fight between one young manís will and the ever-tempting chemical trip to oblivion, the fight to survive on his own terms, for reasons close to his own heart.

A Million Little Pieces is an uncommonly genuine account of a life destroyed and a life reconstructed. It is also the introduction of a bold and talented literary voice.

Back Cover:

At the age of twenty-three, James Frey woke up on a plane to find his four front teeth had been knocked out. His nose was broken and there was a hole through his cheek. He had no idea where the plane was headed or what had happened over the preceding two weeks. He had been an alcoholic for ten years and a crack addict for three. When he checked into a treatment facility shortly thereafter, he was told he could either stop using or die before he reached twenty-four.

A Million Little Pieces is Frey's acclaimed account of his six weeks in rehab; fiercely honest and deeply affecting, it is one of the most graphic and immediate books ever to be written about addiction and recovery.

Notes on a Scandal: James Frey's A Million Little Pieces

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