A Million Little Pieces

Aug 26, 2007

Stephanie Gevatkoff rated it

Recommends it for: nobody!

I did go into this book after the whole scandel business went down, and I went in not caring if it wasn't quite as factual as some may thinkg. Going in knowing this, I had a fairly open mind thinking of it more as a "based on a true story" kind of memoir (hey if I was writing about rehab I would probably change a few things too). However, even going in with this mind set I was SO irritated that this piece of crap had ever been sold as non-fiction. And no, it wasn't the fact that most o...moreI did go into this book after the whole scandel business went down, and I went in not caring if it wasn't quite as factual as some may thinkg. Going in knowing this, I had a fairly open mind thinking of it more as a "based on a true story" kind of memoir (hey if I was writing about rehab I would probably change a few things too). However, even going in with this mind set I was SO irritated that this piece of crap had ever been sold as non-fiction. And no, it wasn't the fact that most of the book was clearly made up, but a number of other things.
First off, there were far too many fancy "only in the fiction world" events. If a crack head runs away from rehab, the guy that doesn't like him isn't going to come and help him on his mission. If a crackhead breaks the number one rule of the rehab centre they aren't going to give him a second chance just because he is so incredible.
Now, that being said, the second thing that irked me was how Frey tried to make himself into a hero. At no point in this book do I congratulate Frey for overcoming his addictions. I just don't care because I don't know what's true and what isn't. Frey explains to us over and over and over again how he is apparently the only person who has ever walked on the planet that can overcome addiction without the twelve steps. All of his support says in this book, "It won't work James, no one has ever stopped being an addict without the twelve steps." Well, James the miracle can! He can stop this just with the power of his mind. He is also strong enough to go into a crackhouse while in rehab and not do any crack and as he's leaving rehab he can sit infront of a huge class of whiskey and not drink it. Well! Good job James! You are the most incredible person on earth (that's what he wants us to say isn't it?)
Third, I hate the bit at the end of the book that "explains" what happens to all of the other characters. You expect every single event. It's like the "You get what's coming" ending. It was lame.
Finally, I hate hate hate this Writing style. Little picky things, I know, but I found it made this book very hard to read. Repeats of everything. Random words capitalized in the middle of a sentence. It irritated me to no end, in fact I could barely finish this book.
I want to forget forget forget this book.(less)

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Ali Al-Hajamy I read the book three or four years after the controversy, and thought that, though it can be universally agreed that lying about a painful process li...moreI read the book three or four years after the controversy, and thought that, though it can be universally agreed that lying about a painful process like recovery from drugs and alcohol is a giant dick move, and dishonourable to the people who actually go through the same things and want to tell their story, I was willing to ignore that for four or five hours and judge the book on its own merits as a literary creation, assuming in the process that everything written is fictional, and all the people are products of Frey's imagination. Though I thought the book was merely okay when I finished and certainly an interesting read for a Saturday afternoon, my respect has waned considerably now that almost a year has passed and I can look at the book with a more critical eye. Well, not eye (mine don't work), but you get the point, and came to about the same conclusions you did in this review. At first, I liked the stream of consciousness style of writing, but now realize that it is not much more than a failed attempt to imitate the writing style of Ernest Hemingway, and an annoying one at that. Also, I got a chance to look at some of the book in Braille, and found out just how many words are capitalised throughout sentences. I knew from the Wikipedia entry that Frey chose to capitalize various nouns for unclear reasons, but had never bothered to look for myself until now. The capitalisations make no sense, not just in the sense that the nouns he capitalises weren't intended to be capitalised in the first place, but that there is no pattern whatsoever of what he chooses to capitalize. At first, I thought capitals indicated words tied to people, events, or entities that are in some way special to him, like the Fury he is battling against. Then I began to see words like Door and Room capitalised, and knew that was not the case. I'm still not sure why he does it, and my current theory is that there is no real reason, other than his attempt to come off as being a deep and philosophical thinker, with the capitals representing abstract ideas that us "normal folk" will, like, never understand because it's, like, really deep and complicated, you guys!(less)
Sep 20, 2011 05:12am

Eva I agree with your belief on the caps Ali. That was my thinking back when I read the book but I didn't find the proper way to explain that back then. (...more
Sep 23, 2011 09:32am

May 26, 2007

Flannery rated it

I read MLP in the spring of 2004 after it was recommended to me by an internship supervisor-turned-friend when I shared with her a story I wrote about a man addicted to cocaine, inspired by true life events. Her life had also been touched by addiction and when she learned that mine was, she lent me the book. I was pulled in by it, chewed up, and spit out with everything put back together differently. Together, we dissected it at length, comparing battle scars reopened by Frey's raw-edged prose. ...moreI read MLP in the spring of 2004 after it was recommended to me by an internship supervisor-turned-friend when I shared with her a story I wrote about a man addicted to cocaine, inspired by true life events. Her life had also been touched by addiction and when she learned that mine was, she lent me the book. I was pulled in by it, chewed up, and spit out with everything put back together differently. Together, we dissected it at length, comparing battle scars reopened by Frey's raw-edged prose. We were the only ones we knew who had read it, and we didn't dare recommend it to just anyone. It was too weighty, the subject material cut too deep. No, MLP was like a secret club, something to be shared prefaced with a disclaimer of "It's really intense, and kind of gory at parts, impossible to read at others, but you might like it ..."

Then, Oprah happened. Dear, sweet, well-meaning Oprah departed from her usual selections and took her book club down a more gnarled, jagged path. Before long, suburban housewives were gasping when Frey vomited for the twelfth time, themselves gagging on lunch when he got his root canal with only tennis balls to squeeze to control the pain until his nails shattered, discussing his every relapse over coffee, weeping when he found the redemption he had fought so hard against.

Then, The Smoking Gun happened. They broke open his story, exposing alleged embellishments and outright fabrications. They vilified him, putting him down in a fiery pit with the likes of Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair. The millions of sheep Oprah shepherded Frey's way responded in kind, guided by a new messiah with a new message: Frey was a dirty, rotten man who should be spit upon if you run into him on the street. And certainly don't waste your tears and pity on such a despicable individual.

They feel betrayed. They welcomed this man into their hearts, they prayed for him, and parts of him never existed. That's all this book is to them-- the tragic story of a reluctant an unlikely hero. A bit less palatable than, say, Macbeth, but the archetype is still the same.

The Smoking Gun does have some hard evidence, I'm not going to lie. I don't know Frey personally, I don't know anything about him beyond what he has written. However, it doesn't diminish how I feel about the book. There are those of us, like my friend and I, with whom the book resonated due to an association with addiction, can appreciate it for what it is, however true or fabricated it may be.

I'm still haunted by things I read in that book. I keep going back to the root canal scene. That's one of the parts of the book that's under suspicion. Whether it happened or not, it's still captivating. My own mother is in recovery with over a decade of sobriety. She has to be very careful with what medications they use, no matter how much pain they're in, or how detatched they'd like to be. She's been clean and sober for over a decade, yet there are choices she to make every day with regards to keeping that sobriety. No, it's not as intense as the root canal scene. Both, however, serve as examples of how that one drink after work can turn into 4 drinks and then passing out can turn into something that will direct the rest of your life.

The fact of the matter remains, the writing is solid and the story is compelling. Frey is no Janet Cooke and MLP is no Jimmy's World.

If you read the book and you got a glimmer of hope from it, whether it be about your own addiction or the demons a loved one has faced, then it's still a worthwhile read. (less)

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Apr 26, 2007

Annie rated it

I read "A Million Little Pieces" before the entire scandal broke out surrounding the truthfulness of the "memoir". Even before obtaining the knowledge that the book was not 100% truthful, I found it to be an overdramatized and unrealistic account of what real life drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs are like. In many scenes in the book I felt as though Frey was self aggrandizing and in some parts even glorifying the experience of being a drug addict. He portrayed drug...moreI read "A Million Little Pieces" before the entire scandal broke out surrounding the truthfulness of the "memoir". Even before obtaining the knowledge that the book was not 100% truthful, I found it to be an overdramatized and unrealistic account of what real life drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs are like. In many scenes in the book I felt as though Frey was self aggrandizing and in some parts even glorifying the experience of being a drug addict. He portrayed drug addicts as rough and rugged, people that have been around the block more than once. Although there is definitely some truth to this, the other side of it is that Rehab is an incredibly sad place to visit. It is filled with lost souls who due to their brain chemistry, life experiences and poor luck have no other choice or options but to admit themselves (People rarely volunteer rehab, it usually takes a severe "rock bottom" to get them there.) I feel as though Frey's book would have been a lot more powerful had he excluded the sensationalism that seemed to flood the book, much of this represented in his wriitng style (one word sentences for dramatic effect.)
After the scandal was revealed and Frey's book was found to be less than non-fiction, my immediate reaction was sadness. I view this to mean that Frey has truly not recovered from his addiction, as step four in the 12 -step- program for recovering addicts is to have "made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves." This book is a reflection that Frey obviously still has some work to do. (Not that all of us don't..we just didn't write a book.) To end on a positive note, I will say that "A Million Little Pieces" did give some people a push to seek treatment for their addictions and anything that is able to motivate someone is valuable, no matter the reason behind it.

New thoughts: I have been alerted by another good-reader that Frey refused to follow the 12 steps while he was in rehab (I remember this now..it has been a while since I read the book.) If the memoir was a true story, I would send an emphatic bravo over to Frey and encourage him to design his own program.. However this is not the case and I can only view this as Frey's false promise to other addicts that something other than A.A and the 12 step program will "cure" them of their demons. Sadly, thus far, for the majority of people, the 12 step program is the only successful way to long term recovery and Frey's invalidation of this process does nothing but direct people away from this track.(less)

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Mar 31, 2008

Dash rated it

Recommends it for: Nobody under any circumstances

Recommended to Dash by: A reviewer who's name I can't recall, but I still hold disdain f

Shelves: biography-memior

What a (million little) piece(s) of crap! By the time I finished this book I was craving a few stiff drinks, desperately tearing up the house looking for a syringe and spoon. If I had only thrown this one in the Goodwill bin sooner! I have no clue why anyone would think this was worthwhile reading material. I found it to be vapid, self-aggrandizing bullshit from start to finish.

I read this book before the whole Oprah controversy/confrontation, so that really had no impact upon my low...more

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Oct 27, 2011

joel rated it

Original Review - 2007 edited slightly (mostly for grammar) in 2011.

I got into a discussion about this book yesterday with some fellow goodreads friends and thought I should add my two cents here. I must start, as is customary with this one, by saying I read the book after it was picked to be in Oprah's book club, but before the scandal occurred.

I enjoyed the book. I attempted to rate it based on the way I felt upon completing it, and without the perspective I now hav...more

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Dec 06, 2007

Grace rated it

I really wish I'd gotten my shit together to review this before all of the news about how much of it might be fiction started swirling around. But since I didn't, I feel some responsibility to talk about that, as well as about the book itself. Oh well.

The drama, in case you live under a rock, is that the truth of a number of the claims Frey makes in this book, a memoir, is being contested. You can take a look at this article if you'd like more information. My thoughts are that Frey pro...moreI really wish I'd gotten my shit together to review this before all of the news about how much of it might be fiction started swirling around. But since I didn't, I feel some responsibility to talk about that, as well as about the book itself. Oh well.

The drama, in case you live under a rock, is that the truth of a number of the claims Frey makes in this book, a memoir, is being contested. You can take a look at this article if you'd like more information. My thoughts are that Frey probably did exaggerate or simply make up some of the things he writes in A Million Little Pieces. Mostly, though, I don't care. My not caring is twofold. First, this is a great book, and it would be a great book if it were fiction, so why should it matter how much of it actually happened? Secondly, I think it's naive to expect a memoir to be 100% factual (if 100% factual even exists). People write with an agenda, people even remember with an agenda, and that's always going to come across, to some extent. That being said, if it's true that Frey exaggerated or invented a lot of what is in this book, then a disclaimer to that effect should have been printed at the front of the book. Tim O'Brien, one of my favorite writers of all time, wrote several partially-factual/partially-fiction works dealing with Vietnam. His response to critics of his not being 100% accurate was that he was writing the truth about what being there felt like, about what being there was, and sometimes the actual facts fit into that and sometimes they don't. I can accept that, and I even admire the perspective. But it's not fair to the reader not to lay it out at the beginning if that is what you are doing. O'Brien does lay it out, and Frey probably should have.

That all being said, I thought this was a very high quality book. The plot is, in many ways, predictable. Frey is a young, well-off, white alcoholic, drug addict, and criminal. The book is the story of his six-week "last chance" rehab, during which time he comes off his addictions and begins his path of sobriety. Nothing revolutionary there. However, Frey's writing is top notch, which makes the story interesting to read, and his take on addiction and recovery is much less that you find in most people who write about it and much more like that I've found in the real life addicts I know. Frey has little respect for AA or 12 stepping in general, and he insists throughout the book on taking responsibility for his own actions and for his addictions. He even finds fault with the untouchable tenant that addiction is a disease. To me, at least, these things are interesting. And whether Frey the human being ever really held them or to what extent matters very little to me. What I'm interested in is what Frey the writer has to say about them.

I like this book because it was interesting to read, it didn't remind me of every other addiction book I've ever read, and it made me think. None of those things require a single word of it to have been true. So I recommend you read it. However, if there is a sharp and important delineation in your mind between fiction and memoir, you'd probably better read this one as fiction.(less)

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Mar 13, 2009

Jim rated it

Shelves: biography, self-help

The first part of this book is well done. Frey does describe what it is like to be an addict well. I'm one & I know. After that, it was pure fiction - very dangerous fiction for an addict.

From his description, I believe he went to the same treatment center as I did. They would never allow him to run his own program or pull half the crap he said he did. His best thinking & will power got him to treatment. It isn't logical nor part of any reputable treatment plan, to allow the addi...more

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Jun 29, 2010

oriana rated it

Shelves: read-2010, i-liked-it-so-there

Let me start by saying that the primary reason I decided to read this book now was that I got it for free. Not that I wasn't curious; I've got a definite weakness for angst and drugs and devastation and redemption. I mean, shit like this is ludicrously popular because it like twangs something in us, right? It accesses some kind of emotional core or whatever, some place in us that has struggled too, that wants to see suffering end and the sun shimmer out from behind the clouds and a reward come t...more

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May 28, 2008

Amanda rated it

Shelves: fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 05, 2007

Karen Rotwitt Perrin rated it

I was so captivated by this book. For the first 100 pages or so, the narrator has his front four teeth knocked out and I kept having the sensation of no front teeth either! I kept attempting to run my tounge along my barren gums and was "surprised" to find my teeth there instead. It was a completely strange experience, but I mention it just to illustrate how this book immediately transported me to another time and place. Although there were parts where I felt he was too repetitive ...moreI was so captivated by this book. For the first 100 pages or so, the narrator has his front four teeth knocked out and I kept having the sensation of no front teeth either! I kept attempting to run my tounge along my barren gums and was "surprised" to find my teeth there instead. It was a completely strange experience, but I mention it just to illustrate how this book immediately transported me to another time and place. Although there were parts where I felt he was too repetitive (no more vomiting details, please!), overall the effect was phenomenal.

I knew about the controversy over the difference between 'memoir' versus 'fiction-based-on-reality' that James Frey sparked with this book, and it was actually part of the reason that I was intrigued enough to buy it and read it myself. I read his forward first (along with a note from the publisher, both added to new editions to respond to the controversy) and was in agreement with him. A memoir is allowed to be somewhat subjective as it is a person's personal recounting of their life and is open to their interpretations and potentially faulty memory. What counts is the sum total of the story.

As I said before, I was completely taken by the book while reading it. Knowing that he "embellished a little bit here and a little bit there" I was frequently curious if it was this part that he altered, or was it this experience that he enhanced, or what details about this person were changed, or did this episode really happen exactly like this? But as I was under the impression that it was only slightly tweaked and just minor details rearranged, it didn't affect my love of the book. I was just smitten.

So then when I breathlessly finished the book and took to the internet to do a little research, I was so disappointed to learn that it was much more than minor details he changed. And I surprised myself by how much it upset me. I had thought that Oprah was over-reacting and being righteous and a stickler for inconsequential academic rules. But now I understand. I was willing to allow a bit of creative freedom on Frey's part, but when it seemed that there was more fabrication than truth, I felt lied to and conned to a certain extent.

But that doesn't change the fact that it was a spectacular read. Labeling it fiction or non-fiction doesn't make the story any less compelling.(less)

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Apr 17, 2008

Yulia rated it

Shelves: me-moirs, read-to-me-by-frank, enjoyably-awful

So bad, it's eminently quotable. I fondly remember lines like, "I endured, I endured, I fucking endured" and "a bayonet, an eight-foot bayonet, a fucking eight-foot bayonet" both during his traumatic root canal (poor Jimmy), and "Like a child being burned alive, a child being burned alive, a child being fucking burned alive," Frey's way of describing a grown man's screaming at the top of his lungs. See the pattern here? Forgive me if I misquote him by leaving out...more

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Sep 24, 2011

Joe rated it

Shelves: gift, memoir, mlis-book-club, own

My Book Club chose to read this Book for the month of June.
I had owned it for years and never gotten around to reading it.
Then I read it.
The Book.
A Million Little Pieces.
It is the allegedly true but probably not story of a Man who smokes a lot of crack and huffs gas and drinks and drinks and drinks until he is so sick he blacks out and he worries his friends and his family until he is sent to a Clinic. He has no front teeth and his cheek has a gash. He is hurt from ...more

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Oct 23, 2008

Shelly rated it

Gary's right about this dude. He's a bigger pumpkin fucker than Steinbeck.

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Aug 12, 2008

I.vs.art rated it

Recommends it for: you

addicts exaggerate the truth -- who knew???
first off, it's a great read with a unique style. frey makes a sort of rhythm with his sentence structure throughout the entire story, pulling and pushing the reader along at a pace that he (frey) determines, and that is an amazing accomplishment in itself. it is also a wonderful tool for bringing the reader into a world that he/she may have absolutely no idea about. i've been to rehab -- a few, actually, over the course of a year -- and it i...moreaddicts exaggerate the truth -- who knew???
first off, it's a great read with a unique style. frey makes a sort of rhythm with his sentence structure throughout the entire story, pulling and pushing the reader along at a pace that he (frey) determines, and that is an amazing accomplishment in itself. it is also a wonderful tool for bringing the reader into a world that he/she may have absolutely no idea about. i've been to rehab -- a few, actually, over the course of a year -- and it is very much like going on a roller coaster without a seat belt when you are least prepared physically/mentally for even the slow car ride there.
secondly, it would blow a lot of minds to do some research on how ineffective AA really is. for many, AA will actually make matters worse. i'm not anti-12-step programs, ((if it works, great!)) but there are a lot of other options that people are not made aware of that could save a life or two.
third, with regards to the climactic scene where frey confronts the demon-whiskey, whether it actually happened or not is pretty irrelevant; he paints a great picture of how a person feels once he/she is on the other side of the problem/disorder/disease/whatever. looking at a manifestation of the very thing that caused so much damage and pain... the frustration of realizing that it could do it again if one were to let down one's guard for even a second... even the somewhat sick and egotistical pleasure one gets from taunting the old bully that used to beat you up daily and take your lunch money... powerful and poignant.
what amazes me more than anything, believe it or not, is frey's honesty. he doesn't do what so many addiction memoirs do, which is romanticise a very self-degrading affliction. he gives it enough of a "hook" here and there to keep the reader's attention, and he drifts in and out of the plot's reality and his subconscious, ((which is also very true to the actual experience,)) but ultimately, he gives a very genuine account of something that (thank God) most people will never have to go through.
and when it comes to the scene at the dentist, well, it wouldn't shock me one way or the other concerning his "truthiness." what i will say is that i can't out right dismiss the possibility when it comes to a man who has the courage to put such a personal and difficult experience out there for the entire world. you can question the man's honesty, but not the size of his b*lls. (less)

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May 07, 2007

liz rated it

Shelves: motherdaughterbonding

My best friend was reading it maybe 6 years ago. I went over her house one day to hang out. After realizing that she wouldn't be putting that book down anytime soon, I complained about wasting my time and she had me read one page, any page. I understood why she wasn't putting it down and let her be.

Years later, after book club hype and before memoir controversy, my mom had me read it. I've always been open minded in terms of memoirs and their relativity to fact. This wasn't the ...more

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Sep 02, 2008

Jamie rated it

I'm still not quite sure what to think of this book, even with the revelations that chunks of it were totally made up. To me, that's not its main problem. Frey's entire work is hamstrung by a half-baked stream of consciousness style that is more often annoying than compelling. Sure, I can appreciate the style when he's talking about how messed up in the head he is, but the inexplicable punctuation (he seems to capitalize words randomly) and the total avoidance of quotation marks doesn't make it ...moreI'm still not quite sure what to think of this book, even with the revelations that chunks of it were totally made up. To me, that's not its main problem. Frey's entire work is hamstrung by a half-baked stream of consciousness style that is more often annoying than compelling. Sure, I can appreciate the style when he's talking about how messed up in the head he is, but the inexplicable punctuation (he seems to capitalize words randomly) and the total avoidance of quotation marks doesn't make it artsy or authentic. It just makes it hard to read.

The book is also hopelessly melodramatic and romantic in the classical sense of the word. True love at first sight saves the day, the author befriends a mob boss with a heart of gold, and there are more addict sob stories than you can swing a crack pipe at. Really, anybody who thought that this "memoir" was 100% true needs to go into gullibility detox themselves. Stuff just doesn't line up like this in real life. Other "Oh you don't really expect me to believe this" points include:

* Getting on a plane covered in blood, in need of immediate medical attention, and unconscious. I can't even get on a plane with an oversized bag.
* Being told he can't have Novocaine (a non-addictive, local, and non-mood altering anesthetic) for a double root canal because he's an addict.
* The author's not getting thrown out of a substance abuse clinic when he freaks out and trashes a room.
* Being told that the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory pegged the author's intelligence as high (the MMPI doesn't measure intelligence).
* A dramatic rescue of a fellow patient from a crack house, accompanied by clinic staff.
* One patient's getting the clinic to allow him to have a private party, complete with catered food, gambling, and the setup of a satellite TV system for the viewing of a Pay-Per-View boxing event.

I could go on, but you get the point. So the book is poorly written, melodramatic, and contrived in several places, not to mention that big parts of it are billed as real when they are obviously not. But still, I kept turning the pages until I came to the end, because it's an interesting story and I wanted to know how it came out. Frey also has some thought-provoking things to say about the nature of abuse and how he was able to deal with it --take personal responsibility for not only your problems, but for solving them. He eschews --even mocks-- the whole 12-step program, calling it the replacement of one addition (drugs) with another (the program). While I think one addiction is obviously better than the other in this example, i can kind of see what he's talking about.

But again, since the legitimacy of his whole tale is questionable, I'm not sure I'd recommend looking to him for anything more than an entertaining story.(less)

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Apr 20, 2008

Bruce Campbell rated it

Recommends it for: people who are over-credulous

Recommended to Bruce by: Not Oprah

I got to read this book just a couple of months before the Oprah controversy broke. I remember speaking about it to the Social Work Practice class I taught at the time and noted that I wasn't at all convinced that it was "true." But I did think it had some interesting material in it if you could look past the quite serious horseshit*: the oral surgery, the romantic embraces, the endless vomiting, and ultimately, the heroic vindication.

I certainly enjoyed watching Frey squir...moreI got to read this book just a couple of months before the Oprah controversy broke. I remember speaking about it to the Social Work Practice class I taught at the time and noted that I wasn't at all convinced that it was "true." But I did think it had some interesting material in it if you could look past the quite serious horseshit*: the oral surgery, the romantic embraces, the endless vomiting, and ultimately, the heroic vindication.

I certainly enjoyed watching Frey squirm as he tried to parse what he understood is meant by "memoir" as if he were not the only person in existence who understands it that way.

What was good was some of the perception (after you remove the intense egoism of Frey) of the co-residents of his particular unit. I treat dozens of people a week. They aren't all whores with hearts of gold, or Mafiosi with souls of poets, but they are all real humans who have been beaten up and beaten down by something that has gotten way out of their control. And they all deserve the chance to get better and get on with life. Frey catches a bit of that.

What was bad is the relentless Freyism that states that you don't have to seriously address your behavior or your underlying character in order to beat an addiction. Frey goes into treatment as a jerk, behaves in treatment as a jerk, and leaves treatment as a jerk. Doesn't work that way. Frey seems to ascribe his "success" to his adamant refusal to be a nice guy and listen to anyone else's perspective.

Basically, the book never was a redemptive saga of a person caught up in drugs and crime. James Frey was essentially a nobody, with some minor traffic violations, maybe doing a little weed, some pills or even some cocaine. Not much to make a book. So he creates a fictional uber-James Frey. It wasn't a little weed or blow, it was drug doses that would kill a normal street junkie. Not a petty disorderly conduct, it was hard time on the Rock sparring with hardbody street toughs. Not a treatment where you sit in groups and listen for hours, it was railing with your strong will against the mind-numbing, soul-destroying system. At certain points, I almost rolled on the floor with laughter.

How do you get spectacular redemption unless you blow everything way out of proportion? Real treatment and redemption in the real world takes months and months (and years and years) of looking at yourself and making thousands of little changes in what you think and feel and do. Instead, Frey offers a formula where there is an inherent nobility and redemption in being a jerk.

*horseshit is a technical term in the literature wheeze(less)

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Nov 09, 2007

Heather rated it

I recently finished the roller-coaster ride that is James Frey's (mostly) autobiographical novel A Million Little Pieces. Surely many of you have seen the controversy over this book which has left Oprah "very disappointed" in author James Frey. She feels taken advantage of by the fact that he seems to have fictionalized several incidents in the book. It is unfortunate that Frey lied (his book would have been just as good with strictly the truth), and I am not condoning lying (am I?), b...moreI recently finished the roller-coaster ride that is James Frey's (mostly) autobiographical novel A Million Little Pieces. Surely many of you have seen the controversy over this book which has left Oprah "very disappointed" in author James Frey. She feels taken advantage of by the fact that he seems to have fictionalized several incidents in the book. It is unfortunate that Frey lied (his book would have been just as good with strictly the truth), and I am not condoning lying (am I?), but let's hear Heather's take on it.

This is an astoundingly riveting book which I picked up in an airport bookstore in spite of the Oprah's Book Club sticker on the front. Raw and affecting, Frey's memoir reveals the "self-inflicted apocalypse" that is hard-core drug addiction. It offers unflinching insight into the loathing and despair that comes with it, and the very long, very hard road back from it.

The book opens with Frey waking up on an airplane at age 23 after ten-plus years of intense, regular, hard drug use. "I wake to the drone of an airplane engine and the feeling of something dripping down my chin. I lift my hand to feel my face. My front four teeth are gone, I have a hole in my cheek, my nose is broken and my eyes are swollen nearly shut." Frey has no idea where he is or how he got there. When he lands in Chicago, he is met by his parents who take him to a rehab facility. It's either that or he will end up dying from the copious drug use which has almost exhausted his system; mind-staggering amounts of alcohol ("every day, when I wake up, as much as I can"), cocaine ("every day, as much as I can, lately crack, but in every form that exists"), pills, acid, mushrooms, meth, PCP, glue. When he takes these things, it temporarily quiets what he calls "The Fury," the murderous, screaming fury inside of him.

As Frey works through all the crap in his life and tries to salvage his relationships, who he is, and come to terms with what he has done, his writing reverberates and aches with pain and honest intensity, but I appreciate that he doesn't slide into maudlin prose. It is terse. It is to the point. He is dealing with The Question posed to him on the rehab self-assessment quiz:

"My sins are unpardonable. True or false?
I stare at the question.
My sins are unpardonable.
I stare at the question.
My sins are unpardonable.

I leave it blank."

I thought that the merits of this book outweigh the fact that there are fictionalized incidents. To me, it's like that whole period in his life was so out of control, so destructive, blurred, surreal, so....falling apart, that the point remains even if the details were not exactly as they occurred. The essence of the book, for me, remains the same in light of the current revelations. It's not as if I went and sobbed in a hot shower, curled in a ball, when I heard that not *every* incident in the book happened exactly like he said. It is a still a recommended read on my shelf.
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Sep 12, 2007

Aristogama Inounu rated it

"A Million Little Pieces" is James Frey's recollection of his days in a rehabilitation center. He woke up on a plane not remembering anything and his parents decided to admit him to a program called the Twelve Steps. He described everything from surgery to landscape graphically, often in horrific details. The story is told in the first person perspective. I believe the author did this on purpose to put forward his point of view but sometimes there are fallacies in his line of reasoning...more

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Aug 03, 2008

Elijah Jones rated it

Being a recovering drunk myself, I found Frey's book to be thoroughly annoying. People in addiction tend to be self-absorbed people and this is one of the things we're trying to learn not to be when we stop drinking/using. Frey portrays a character who stops using but doesn't really change. He becomes more annoying and self-absorbed with his cliched eastern religious study and trip to the dentist without pain med's which I found totally unbelievable and unhealthy.
The good thing about t...more

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Dec 19, 2007

Britta rated it

"As I looked around the room I saw that she was reading a book in one of the beds. Light streamed through one of the windows and across her face and I had never seen anything or anyone so beautiful in my life. If my heart had stopped at that moment I woul dhave fallen happy and fallen full and I would have seen in life all that I had wanted to see and all that I needed to see. Fall. Let me fall."

"... her voice calms me and her arms warm me and her smell lightens me and...more"As I looked around the room I saw that she was reading a book in one of the beds. Light streamed through one of the windows and across her face and I had never seen anything or anyone so beautiful in my life. If my heart had stopped at that moment I woul dhave fallen happy and fallen full and I would have seen in life all that I had wanted to see and all that I needed to see. Fall. Let me fall."

"... her voice calms me and her arms warm me and her smell lightens me and I can feel her heart beat and if she let me go right now I would fall and the need and confusion and fear and regret and horror and shame and weakness and fragility are exposed to the soft strength of her open arms..."

"... [she] cradles me like a broken child. My face and her shoulder and her shirt and her hair are wet with my tears. I slow down and I start to breath slowly and deeply and her hair smells clean and I open my eyes because I want to see it and it is all that I can see. It is... radiant with moisture. I want to touch it amd O reach with one of my hands and I run my hand from the crown along her neck and her back to the base of her rib and it is a thin perfect sheer and I let it slowly drop from the tips of my fingers and when it is gone I miss it."

"When she walks in my heart jumps and my hands shake and me myself inside settles it settles and those things for which there are no words ignite and they start firing firing firing."

"The first time I saw you, my heart fell. The second time I saw you, my heart fell. The third time fourth time fifth time and every time since, my heart has fallen. I stared at her. You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Your hair, your eyes, your lips, your body that you haven't grown into, the way you walk, smile, laugh, the way your cheeks drop when you're mad or upset, the way you drag your feet when you're tired. Every single thing about you is beautiful. I stared at her. When I see you the world stops. It stops and all that exists for me is you and my eyes staring at you. There's nothign else. No noise, no other people, no thoughts or worries, no yesterday, no tomorrow. The world justs tops, and it is a beautiful place, and there is only you. Just you, and my eyes staring at you. I stared. When you're gone, the world starts again, and I don't like it as much. I can live in it, but I don't like it. I just walk around in ti amd wait to see you again and wait for it to stop again. I love it when it stops. It's the best thing I've ever known or ever felt, the best thing, and that, beautiful girl, is why I stare at you."

"She smiled brighter, wider, a smile more full of what she is, which is beautiful. Inside and out. The smile. Her. Beautiful."(less)

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Aug 15, 2007

Millie rated it

Shelves: appalling

Leave out the Oprah fiasco for a moment, and think about the book on it's merits (however dubious they may be). Is it well written? Does it ring true (different to actual, factual legitimacy, I'm referring more to an air of authenticity that ALL good books have, fiction or non)? Are the characters realistic, living in situations that are not, say, the cliched, onanistic daydreams of a *cough* frustrated screenwriter? Is the protagonist, even in the tiniest way, a sympathetic character?

...more

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Aug 18, 2007

Laura rated it

Recommends it for: Oprahbots

Shelves: fiction

You may be thinking you'd like to read this book to see what all the fuss is about. Don't. First of all, even putting the "scandal" aside (and I'm sorry, but if you read this book and didn't know that 90 percent of it or more was absolute bullshit, you really need to do some work on your critical thinking skills), the writing style is embarrassing -- an overwrought, pseudo-macho mess. Second, if you buy this book, you're just inflating Frey's bank account, which is tantamount to reward...more

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Mar 14, 2008

Sally rated it

Don't be suckered in by Oprah's fanaticism. It is a woven narrative of memory and dream from a twisted, warped drug user and alcoholic. Of course it is full of inverted realities and embellished versions of history. Its a wonder his brain can even form sentences. The fact that he not only can, but can convince the world with vivid, enchanting prose makes me believe in his ability as a writer.

Show me a writer and I will show you a liar.
Two sides to the same coin.
...more

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Jul 31, 2008

Rachel rated it

this book is effing hilarious! it's my brainless trashy summer read. go ahead and judge, just go 'head!

*update*
okay, i could not get through it; it was too awful. i scanned the remaining half and read the last chapter. what a self-aggrandizing fuckface! how did anyone for a second believe this was a real life account of addiction? his mobster friend he meets in rehab..."i always wanted a son...will you be my son?" come on! it's convenient how all of his larger...more

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Jan 24, 2012

nik rated it

Shelves: xeroed, re-read

A Million Little Pieces … When someone is broken beyond repair, it's one of the first things that surfaces into my consciousness. Pulverizing one's self into molecular form. This book gives me a mental image of what I stated. A Million Little Pieces … Bit by bit to the point that you are not longer existing. Perhaps that's the goal. Self-destruction. To be non-existent. To die. To be no more. Good Bye.

Nowadays, that being broken is being turned to literature. As to what a guy said to...more

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Oct 24, 2010

Katherine added it

All right, I'm late on this one. I admit it.

Listen, I've never been to rehab myself, but I run with a pretty raggedy crowd (and I love you guys). By page 25 I had lost count of the things that would never, ever, ever happen in inpatient. From then on I gave up and focused on trying to enjoy the ride.

Actually, I'm surprised to find out that Frey had done a stint at all. Rehab counselors, many of whom are recovering addicts or alcoholics themselves, see "I'm better tha...moreAll right, I'm late on this one. I admit it.

Listen, I've never been to rehab myself, but I run with a pretty raggedy crowd (and I love you guys). By page 25 I had lost count of the things that would never, ever, ever happen in inpatient. From then on I gave up and focused on trying to enjoy the ride.

Actually, I'm surprised to find out that Frey had done a stint at all. Rehab counselors, many of whom are recovering addicts or alcoholics themselves, see "I'm better than these losers in my therapy group/I know how to recover on my own, dammit/I don't need AA 'cause that's like RELIGION/I'm in love with this girl I met in the meds line and she's gonna be my madonna-whore SALVATION" cheesedicks like Frey every day, and can bust them down to their component parts in half a second. The people in A Million Little Pieces just kind of... smile and nod.

When I reached the famous "two root canals with no anesthetic" scene, I realized that the story of A Million Little Pieces really reveals the overwhelming cultural gentrification of the mainstream literary publishing industry: the fact that this manuscript went past dozens of supposedly critical eyes during its publication process, and while readers had been calling bullshit on it since the day it hit shelves, there was literally no one in the office who could say "Hold on, I went to rehab/I'm close to somebody who went to rehab, and I smell bullshit."

And if you're cynical and crass and desperate to be published enough, you may outfox them, but eventually you'll be sweating and squirming and inventing new definitions of "memoir" while Oprah shuts you down on national television. A search on YouTube can turn up this impressive bit of backpedaling (but if, like me, you are overly empathic, be warned that it's harder to watch than sausage being made).

To borrow from Roger Ebert's excellent review of "The Human Centipede," I'm not assigning this one a star rating. It is what it is, and it occupies a place in a realm where there are no stars.

By the way, if you want to see a real addiction-recovery memoir, check out The Night of the Gun. Not only is it transparently and aggressively researched, it also goes into all the unglamorous and uncool aspects of being a recovering addict. Like ballooning up to 300 pounds after you kick the speed habit, negotiating your new life with halfway houses and child custody lawyers and divorce agreements, and trying to get a job with a multi-year black hole and a couple of at-fault firings in your work history.(less)

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Dec 01, 2008

Jafar rated it

The only reason that I finished this book was that I brought it with me from London and I was going around small coastal towns in the Dominican Republic offering no alternative reading material. But what a waste of 500+ pages of reading time! I cannot think of anything that Frey wants to say in this book other than: Look at how fucked-up I am. I'm not asking for your sympathy or understanding - and fuck you if you even think of pitying me. Nor am I writing to help others with similar addiction p...moreThe only reason that I finished this book was that I brought it with me from London and I was going around small coastal towns in the Dominican Republic offering no alternative reading material. But what a waste of 500+ pages of reading time! I cannot think of anything that Frey wants to say in this book other than: Look at how fucked-up I am. I'm not asking for your sympathy or understanding - and fuck you if you even think of pitying me. Nor am I writing to help others with similar addiction problems. As a matter of fact, I hurt those who try to help me and ridicule the methods that are used in the rehab clinics. I just want you to look at how fucked-up I am and revel in that because I'm a narcissistic asshole and I just love to talk about myself. I will lie all through the book to make myself look tough and bad-ass, and after my lies are exposed I will try to justify them by saying that I wanted my story to have ebb and flow. I will attempt to manipulate your emotions into thinking that I'm not an asshole all the time. There was this poor fucked-up crack whore in my rehab who fell for me. I will make more cheese out of that story than Wisconsin produces in a year. Of course, I have more reasons to write this book than just telling you how fucked-up I am. Buy it and make me rich. That would be nice, wouldn't it?

Large parts of this book is unbelievably mundane and boring; some are downright asinine. The only reason that this book has blown up to more than 500 pages is that Frey just loves to talk about himself. There's a story in the book about some ex-patient rock star who comes to the clinic to talk about his experience and recovery. Frey ridicules his speech as all lies and self-aggrandizing bullshit. His own book can be described in the exact same way, and I have a feeling that he knows it very well. Frey probably thinks that he's come up with some really avant-garde experimental writing style by capitalizing random nouns and I-speak-he-speaks dialogs, but his writing is mediocre and irritating. It becomes good on rare occasions, like the passage describing his root-canal procedure without anesthesia (another lie, by the way), but on other occasions he relapses to the other extreme and writes like a barely-literate juvenile.

I don't care about this guy and I don't care about his story. The book left me feeling angry at myself for giving some self-indulgent asshole the satisfaction of having another reader. I'm really happy that I borrowed the book from the library and didn't give him some of my money as well.(less)

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Nov 19, 2008

Aldean rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Aldean by: Amy Brown

Shelves: memoir, to-re-read, possessions

[This review is excerpted from a essay I wrote for my blog in 2005]

I started reading A Million Little Pieces in the spring of 2003, shortly before its April release. Our friendly neighborhood Random House rep knew I was a shameless trauma junkie, and when she slid the reviewer's copy across the breakroom table I snapped it up.

It was immediately clear to me that this was not a factual book. This is not to say that I thought it was untrue — far from it — but merely that it ...more

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Nov 04, 2007

Ruben Rodriguez rated it

Recommends it for: Anyone

This is one of the most engaging books I have ever read. With every page, you are lead along a ride with a recovering drug addict. Throughout the book, you find yourself wishing for his success. The book starts with James, the protagonist. He is on a plane, and he does not know how he got there. He is very injured; missing four teeth and having a broken nose. He eventually finds out he was put on the plane by two men and a doctor, and that he is flying to Chicago. Arriving, he is placed in a Reh...more

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