A Million Little Pieces
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.
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.
2 Comments:
Hey Liz. Has your view of the book been changed now that the truth about the story and the author has been revealed?
Chris,
Actually, no. What I wrote above I wrote pretty much after everything had come to light. Yes, the fact that the book first claimed to be completely factual but was later proven not to be did make me think about it differently. But, I still think the book is a great story that is definitely worth reading.
A lot of people have been getting very mad at Frey, calling him a con artist and such. But I do not think he set out to con anyone at all. Statistically, the first novel every author writes is essentially autobiographical fiction. A lot of us do have stories in our past that we need to tell, stories that in some cases are worth publishing for others to read. Frey had this story. He wanted to share it and he wanted to tell it well. His desire to write a good book is clearly evident in his creation of a voice that perfectly matches his story and scenes and characters that pull readers so close that we feel like we are almost in the moment with him. He wanted to write a good story and because of that he added to and altered some of the truth of his actual life story. There is nothing wrong with that. I have written pieces like that. The wrong is that he and his publishers claimed it was something that it was not. If it had been released as a fictional story based on true events, no one would care.
So, as I see it, our problem is that we feel like we have been duped. It is not fun to be duped. No one likes to be duped (especially prominent public figures like Oprah). But just because we have been duped does not change the power of Frey’s story. It is well written. It has characters you want to meet yourself. It speaks about personal empowerment and friendship (one of the best tales of friendship I’ve read in a while) in a way that stays with you. And even if Frey was not actually as much of a badass as he portrays himself, even if his situations weren’t quiet as desperate or extreme as he described…well, for most of us, it actually moves him closer to where we are, to slightly less extreme situations of desperations. However, I do acknowledge that there are many people who have actually dealt with situations equivalent to the extremes the book describes, and, in their case, I think the book does lose most of its credit.
One of the main aspects of the book is the flawed nature of man. Frey is flawed. All of his friends are flawed. But, at the same time, it is difficult to not become attached to and care for each and every one of them. They all are flawed, but they all show a capacity to love, to feel, and to positively impact others…In his past, Frey was flawed, and he still is. None of us will cease to be flawed no matter how much we change. No matter how much we “improve� ourselves, we will still make mistakes. Frey made a mistake here, but I do not think that changes his desire to positively impact and encourage others or his book’s ability to also do so.
“A Million Little Pieces� and its author have certainly gone through the ringer since their debut on The Smoking Gun a few weeks ago. But whatever controversy may surround it, the book is a story that did and still does encourage and inspire me.
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