Oprah’s staff cried when they read it. The Smoking Gun launched an investigation before her book club could finish it. Late night hosts and early morning anchors began flipping through it as soon as it made its “smoking” debut. And if they had not already, people all over the world ran to the shelves to buy it.

 

Meet the new addiction memoir of our time—James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces.”

Grabbing you with both hands on its very first page, “A Million Little Pieces” is an emotional rollercoaster ride unlike any other recently published book. It is a portrait of people at their worst. It is a tale of friendship at its best. It is an uncensored look at humanity and a reminder of perhaps one of its most real states. And told in a voice that makes us feel like we are inside Frey’s own head, it becomes a reality check that cannot help but reach inside us all and make us take a closer look at our own lives.

While “A Million Little Pieces” is certainly no grammatical work of genius, its unique voice reinforces what is an already captivating story and makes the book worth every minute spent reading it. For the most part, the story never lets you go and rarely drags. Even without its sometimes teeth clenching events, it characters and the depth to which Frey allows readers to know them keep you reading just to know how they are doing.

But even with its strengths, even with its widespread praise, “A Million Little Pieces” was not able to avoid a question knocking at its door as soon as its sales began to rocket—Is it too good to be true? Or rather, is it too bad to be true? Some of the horrors a bit exaggerated, a few events described not quite as they occurred, a few characters slightly altered?

In all reality, the “smoking” claims are not that surprising. Frey’s plot points do work out a bit too well for a true story. Some of his trials do seem to defy a realistic ability to pull through. And some of his dramatic “escapes” are a bit unbelievable. But, still the story is the same.

James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces” may not be the fully non-fictional tale of addiction and recovery it first presented itself to be. But nonetheless, the story and the powerful way it is told have not changed. It still speaks to us about facing our own failures and dealing with trials that seem too large to overcome. It still leaves us with beautiful pictures of true friendships and actual reasons to believe in hope. And even if “A Million Little Pieces” is not completely true, it is still a story told by a man who has overcome, a story that challenges us to not merely acknowledge our failures but to also know that they need not control us, that we can decide whether they will control us or not, and that we can choose to let something better carry us through this life instead.