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it should be a law to put quotations around dialogue
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Rating(4 / 5.0, 99 votes)
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There is a reason that this novel is my favorite novel. I read this at such a young age, and I am quite sure that I can blame it for the fact that I've never done drugs or drank in my 21 years of being alive. This book is so real and so detailed and specific and James' life is so horrible that it's nothing I would ever want for myself. I know there's a lot of controversy about whether this is a fiction or a non fiction book and I say: who cares? Whether he really lived it or exaggerated most of it, it's a good book. It's detailed and interesting and compelling and even as a fiction book nothing changes it. Maybe James Frey did not go through everything in this novel, but someone somewhere out there is and that makes the book non fiction.
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As I was reading this, I kept thinking - when this was first published, people actually believed this was a biographical account?? Yes, hindsight is 20/20, and yes, not everyone knows what happens with addiction and addiction therapy, but there were just too many situations that beggared belief. I've had friends who were, in one way or another, involved with treatment. They've all said that this is the biggest load of nonsense they've ever read.
Continuous vomiting with massive blood and tissue loss but no medical intervention, yet still able to function more or less normally - doesn't happen, folks. The body can't sustain that kind of blood loss. Dental procedures done without anesthetic on an addict - that doesn't happen either. It would be a violation of every medical oath ever taken, by a dentist, by a doctor, by anyone in the field. The utter incompetence of the clinic staff should have been a red flag to anyone who has even a vague clue about treatment of addictions. I mean really, a violent ex-patient manages to get back into the clinic, brandishing a club, and nobody catches him at the door? I guess it could happen but I doubt that it results in a long drawn out screaming match in front of nearly every patient in the building before the person is secured and removed from the facility immediately.
I'm rehashing much-debated issues here, I know. So on to the actual writing itself. I've seen this stream of consciousness approach before. It's been done much more skillfully and effectively. The awkwardness of the prose and the heavy use of profanity is supposed to make it 'edgy' and 'raw' and 'real.' It ends up being overdone and after a while it just gets annoying. I've read real biographies of addicts, some with profanity and some without, and they manage to be much edgier, much rawer and much more real than this book had a hope in hell of being.
I read this to get it off of my TBR list and to fulfill a group reading challenge. It's done and good riddance to it. Now back to reality and really good literature.
Continuous vomiting with massive blood and tissue loss but no medical intervention, yet still able to function more or less normally - doesn't happen, folks. The body can't sustain that kind of blood loss. Dental procedures done without anesthetic on an addict - that doesn't happen either. It would be a violation of every medical oath ever taken, by a dentist, by a doctor, by anyone in the field. The utter incompetence of the clinic staff should have been a red flag to anyone who has even a vague clue about treatment of addictions. I mean really, a violent ex-patient manages to get back into the clinic, brandishing a club, and nobody catches him at the door? I guess it could happen but I doubt that it results in a long drawn out screaming match in front of nearly every patient in the building before the person is secured and removed from the facility immediately.
I'm rehashing much-debated issues here, I know. So on to the actual writing itself. I've seen this stream of consciousness approach before. It's been done much more skillfully and effectively. The awkwardness of the prose and the heavy use of profanity is supposed to make it 'edgy' and 'raw' and 'real.' It ends up being overdone and after a while it just gets annoying. I've read real biographies of addicts, some with profanity and some without, and they manage to be much edgier, much rawer and much more real than this book had a hope in hell of being.
I read this to get it off of my TBR list and to fulfill a group reading challenge. It's done and good riddance to it. Now back to reality and really good literature.
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I deliberately read this memoir of non-fiction fiction to explore the relationship between truth, Truth, and story. But I didn't learn all that much about my relationship with those things as much as I did find out about other people's entaglements with those issues.
For example, I took this book with me to update my voter registration. Granted, it is a small city, so it was just me in the small office with the registrar, but I don't think being alone was the only reason she looked at what I was holding and felt compelled to say, "You know that's all lies, don't you?" Her voice and tone was more PSA sounding than that. I told her, yes, that that was precisely why I was reading it, and that maybe sometimes lies have more truth than the Truth. Perhaps her voice was one of a disgusted reader who felt cheated by Frey, I don't know. I should have found out, in the interests of my exploration...for science. But I responded only to the first question without asking another and then lickety-split left that place because she didn't look at all happy with my response (after all, I'm new to this neighborhood and she has my address and knows where I'll be coloring in circles on election day).
When my friend called and asked, "What are you reading now (book nerd)?" (- implied)
and heard "A Million Little Pieces" , she too had to tell me that the book was a lie. Everyone who had anything to say about the book I was reading said the same thing, and I think they said it for the same reason- as a warning. But even if they didn't say it as a warning, it was what I heard-Watch out! This book might not be what you think it is...this James Frey is telling a story in his story...you know, just be careful. And that is what this whole thing is about...is what you hear a truthful interpretation of what is said? Is what you read a truthful interpretation of what is written? Just how much 'story' is allowed in a story?
Thankfully, David Sedaris had an interview in the Spring '07 Missouri Review that mentioned this very thing in regards to this very book. (Mr. Sedaris, I love you. And that is true, but you can interpret it however you want)
(Sedaris:)"Was it Flannery O'Connor who said that a writer's job is not to have an experience but to contemplate experiences? That seems right to me-trying to make sense of it all."
(Interviewer:)"Earlier, we were talking about writing fiction and nonfiction. What do you feel are the most important differences between those two genres?"
(Sedaris:)"...Okay, James Frey wrote a book saying, 'I'm a fucked-up alcoholic.' And then people read the book, and now they're saying, 'That drunk lied to us!' Well, he kind of warned you in advance that he was a fucked-up alcoholic. I can't understand the self-righteousness that goes along with that anger. You can let the truth slide when it comes to the president, but if it's a first-time memoirist, how dare he? How dare he lead us on?
I loved Angela's Ashes, but if I found out tomorrow that Frank McCourt was born in Dublin instead of Limerick and that his family was wealthy, it wouldn't change my feelings about the book at all. I think autobiography is the last place you would look for truth. Biography, maybe, but not autobiography. Ever since that business with him [James Frey], fact-checkers are in overdrive. It's made my life miserable. Like, the fact-checker from The New Yorker will say, 'We talked to your father, and he said that the grandfather clock is made out of oak, and you say it was made out of cherry.' And it's not a story about a grandfather clock. It doesn't really matter. "
For example, I took this book with me to update my voter registration. Granted, it is a small city, so it was just me in the small office with the registrar, but I don't think being alone was the only reason she looked at what I was holding and felt compelled to say, "You know that's all lies, don't you?" Her voice and tone was more PSA sounding than that. I told her, yes, that that was precisely why I was reading it, and that maybe sometimes lies have more truth than the Truth. Perhaps her voice was one of a disgusted reader who felt cheated by Frey, I don't know. I should have found out, in the interests of my exploration...for science. But I responded only to the first question without asking another and then lickety-split left that place because she didn't look at all happy with my response (after all, I'm new to this neighborhood and she has my address and knows where I'll be coloring in circles on election day).
When my friend called and asked, "What are you reading now (book nerd)?" (- implied)
and heard "A Million Little Pieces" , she too had to tell me that the book was a lie. Everyone who had anything to say about the book I was reading said the same thing, and I think they said it for the same reason- as a warning. But even if they didn't say it as a warning, it was what I heard-Watch out! This book might not be what you think it is...this James Frey is telling a story in his story...you know, just be careful. And that is what this whole thing is about...is what you hear a truthful interpretation of what is said? Is what you read a truthful interpretation of what is written? Just how much 'story' is allowed in a story?
Thankfully, David Sedaris had an interview in the Spring '07 Missouri Review that mentioned this very thing in regards to this very book. (Mr. Sedaris, I love you. And that is true, but you can interpret it however you want)
(Sedaris:)"Was it Flannery O'Connor who said that a writer's job is not to have an experience but to contemplate experiences? That seems right to me-trying to make sense of it all."
(Interviewer:)"Earlier, we were talking about writing fiction and nonfiction. What do you feel are the most important differences between those two genres?"
(Sedaris:)"...Okay, James Frey wrote a book saying, 'I'm a fucked-up alcoholic.' And then people read the book, and now they're saying, 'That drunk lied to us!' Well, he kind of warned you in advance that he was a fucked-up alcoholic. I can't understand the self-righteousness that goes along with that anger. You can let the truth slide when it comes to the president, but if it's a first-time memoirist, how dare he? How dare he lead us on?
I loved Angela's Ashes, but if I found out tomorrow that Frank McCourt was born in Dublin instead of Limerick and that his family was wealthy, it wouldn't change my feelings about the book at all. I think autobiography is the last place you would look for truth. Biography, maybe, but not autobiography. Ever since that business with him [James Frey], fact-checkers are in overdrive. It's made my life miserable. Like, the fact-checker from The New Yorker will say, 'We talked to your father, and he said that the grandfather clock is made out of oak, and you say it was made out of cherry.' And it's not a story about a grandfather clock. It doesn't really matter. "
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"Though I have been their child for 23 years, we have never been a family. We are now. As we hold each other."
Bu kitapta beni çeken ilk şey yazarın kendi hayatını yazması ve öyle mutlu, aşk dolu bir roman olmamasıydı. İkincisi ise daha önce alkolik ve uyuşturucu bağımlısı birinin bu denli ayrıntılı bir şekilde neler hissettiğini ve neler yaşadığ��nı daha önce hiç okumamış olmamdı.
James Frey’i hepimiz Endgame serisinin yazarı olarak biliyoruz peki ama bundan önce o kimdi? James, yaklaşık 13 yaşından beri alkol kullanıyor ve uyuşturucu bağımlısı. Bir gün nereye gittiğini bilmediği bir uçakta; ön dişleri kırılmış, burnu kırık, gözleri şişmiş ve kelimenin tam anlamıyla ölümüne dövülmüş bir şekilde yarı baygın yatıyor. Bu büyük olaydan sonra bir kliğine gidip bu yaşantısından kurtulmak istiyor. Anne, babası ve kardeşi ona sürekli destek oluyor fakat James’in içinde öyle büyük bir öfke var ki anne ve babasını ne zaman göre onlardan nefret ediyor. Onları seviyor ama yine de onlardan nefret etmekten kendini alamıyor. Klinikte geçirdiği günlerin çoğunu çok etkilenerek okudum. James, bağımlı olduğu için ilk günler onun için çok zor geçiyor. Geçirdiği nöbetler okumak Jems’in kendisi kadar beni de korkuttu. Bu nöbetlerin birinde James artık ölmeye karar veriyor ve klinikten ayrılmaya çalışıyor. Onu durduran kişi orada daha yeni tanıştığı Leonard oluyor. (My Friend Leonard adında bu arkadaşı için yazdığı bir kitap var, onu da okumak istiyorum.)
James, Leonard’a , 24 saat dayanmak için söz veriyor. Eğer 24 saatin sonunda hala kendini berbat hissederse gitmesine izin vermesini istiyor Bu konuda anlaştıktan 24 sonra James tamamen değişiyor. Klinikte kalıp savaşmaya devam ediyor. Ailesi ile yüzleşiyor, onlara bağımlı olduğu zamanlarını ve her yaşında neler yaptığını neler denediğini ayrıntılı bir şekilde anlatıyor. Bunları okumak benim için büyük bir şok oldu. Bir insanın bu kadar çok şey yapacağını tahmin edemezdim. Daha sonra bunlardan pişman olup özür dilemesi ama diğer yaşlarda aynılarını tekrar yapması çok sinirimi bozdu. Aynı şekilde bir rahibe içini döküp, yaşadığı sarsıcı bir olayı anlattıktan sonra o rahibin bir şey dememesi de aynı şekilde saçma geldi. Her ne kadar yaşanmış bir hikaye olsa da insan biraz destek bekliyor. Kitabın ilerleyişi her bölümde yaşanılan ve ortaya çıkan gerçekler sizi kitaba daha da çok bağlıyor. Kardeşi hakkında yazdıkları şey beni çok ama çok etkiledi. Orada ağladım. Ve kardeşinden bahsediş şekli çok enfes bir şeydi. Annesi ve babası ile bir sarılma anı var arkadaşlar…Bir kızı gördüğünde ağzından dökülen kelimeler var arkadaşlar... Ben öyle güzel bir şey okumadım. Leonard karakteri ise James’e yol gösteren bir baba figürüydü. (Kitabı okursanız bu göndermeyi anlayacaksınız.)
Dilinden çok az bahsedersem eğer okuyacak İngilizce kitap arıyorsanız bu kitabı kesinlikle öneririm. 400 kusur sayfa olması sizi korkutmasın. Kitabın yarısı boşluklu bir şekilde yazılmış diyaloglardan oluşuyor. E-kitap formatında indirip kitabı incelerseniz ne dediğimi anlayacaksınız. Ve çoğu kelime, cümleler basit yazılmış. Olduğu gibi yani. Yan ya da mecaz anlam yok. Rahatlıkla okursunuz. Benim için olumsuz yanlarına gelecek olursam, kolay okunuyor fakat o kadar çok aynı cümle, aynı an tekrar edildi ki çok sıkıldım. Bazı yerlerde sırf yazmak için yazdığını düşündüm. Çoğu yer kendi özeli olarak kalabilirdi diye de düşünmüyor değilim. Bazen de o kadar çok şey aynı anda oluyor ki diyorum acaba “gerçekten de yaşamış mısınız James bey bunları?” Son olarak, kitabın sonu ve her bir karaktere daha sonradan neler olduğu yazılması iyi düşünülmüş. Bende zaten hepsinin neler yaptığını çok merak ediyordum. Trajik bir yaşam hikâyesi okumak istiyorsanız, hemen okuyun bu kitabı. Orijinal dilinde okumanızı tavsiye ederim.
Bu kitapta beni çeken ilk şey yazarın kendi hayatını yazması ve öyle mutlu, aşk dolu bir roman olmamasıydı. İkincisi ise daha önce alkolik ve uyuşturucu bağımlısı birinin bu denli ayrıntılı bir şekilde neler hissettiğini ve neler yaşadığ��nı daha önce hiç okumamış olmamdı.
James Frey’i hepimiz Endgame serisinin yazarı olarak biliyoruz peki ama bundan önce o kimdi? James, yaklaşık 13 yaşından beri alkol kullanıyor ve uyuşturucu bağımlısı. Bir gün nereye gittiğini bilmediği bir uçakta; ön dişleri kırılmış, burnu kırık, gözleri şişmiş ve kelimenin tam anlamıyla ölümüne dövülmüş bir şekilde yarı baygın yatıyor. Bu büyük olaydan sonra bir kliğine gidip bu yaşantısından kurtulmak istiyor. Anne, babası ve kardeşi ona sürekli destek oluyor fakat James’in içinde öyle büyük bir öfke var ki anne ve babasını ne zaman göre onlardan nefret ediyor. Onları seviyor ama yine de onlardan nefret etmekten kendini alamıyor. Klinikte geçirdiği günlerin çoğunu çok etkilenerek okudum. James, bağımlı olduğu için ilk günler onun için çok zor geçiyor. Geçirdiği nöbetler okumak Jems’in kendisi kadar beni de korkuttu. Bu nöbetlerin birinde James artık ölmeye karar veriyor ve klinikten ayrılmaya çalışıyor. Onu durduran kişi orada daha yeni tanıştığı Leonard oluyor. (My Friend Leonard adında bu arkadaşı için yazdığı bir kitap var, onu da okumak istiyorum.)
James, Leonard’a , 24 saat dayanmak için söz veriyor. Eğer 24 saatin sonunda hala kendini berbat hissederse gitmesine izin vermesini istiyor Bu konuda anlaştıktan 24 sonra James tamamen değişiyor. Klinikte kalıp savaşmaya devam ediyor. Ailesi ile yüzleşiyor, onlara bağımlı olduğu zamanlarını ve her yaşında neler yaptığını neler denediğini ayrıntılı bir şekilde anlatıyor. Bunları okumak benim için büyük bir şok oldu. Bir insanın bu kadar çok şey yapacağını tahmin edemezdim. Daha sonra bunlardan pişman olup özür dilemesi ama diğer yaşlarda aynılarını tekrar yapması çok sinirimi bozdu. Aynı şekilde bir rahibe içini döküp, yaşadığı sarsıcı bir olayı anlattıktan sonra o rahibin bir şey dememesi de aynı şekilde saçma geldi. Her ne kadar yaşanmış bir hikaye olsa da insan biraz destek bekliyor. Kitabın ilerleyişi her bölümde yaşanılan ve ortaya çıkan gerçekler sizi kitaba daha da çok bağlıyor. Kardeşi hakkında yazdıkları şey beni çok ama çok etkiledi. Orada ağladım. Ve kardeşinden bahsediş şekli çok enfes bir şeydi. Annesi ve babası ile bir sarılma anı var arkadaşlar…Bir kızı gördüğünde ağzından dökülen kelimeler var arkadaşlar... Ben öyle güzel bir şey okumadım. Leonard karakteri ise James’e yol gösteren bir baba figürüydü. (Kitabı okursanız bu göndermeyi anlayacaksınız.)
Dilinden çok az bahsedersem eğer okuyacak İngilizce kitap arıyorsanız bu kitabı kesinlikle öneririm. 400 kusur sayfa olması sizi korkutmasın. Kitabın yarısı boşluklu bir şekilde yazılmış diyaloglardan oluşuyor. E-kitap formatında indirip kitabı incelerseniz ne dediğimi anlayacaksınız. Ve çoğu kelime, cümleler basit yazılmış. Olduğu gibi yani. Yan ya da mecaz anlam yok. Rahatlıkla okursunuz. Benim için olumsuz yanlarına gelecek olursam, kolay okunuyor fakat o kadar çok aynı cümle, aynı an tekrar edildi ki çok sıkıldım. Bazı yerlerde sırf yazmak için yazdığını düşündüm. Çoğu yer kendi özeli olarak kalabilirdi diye de düşünmüyor değilim. Bazen de o kadar çok şey aynı anda oluyor ki diyorum acaba “gerçekten de yaşamış mısınız James bey bunları?” Son olarak, kitabın sonu ve her bir karaktere daha sonradan neler olduğu yazılması iyi düşünülmüş. Bende zaten hepsinin neler yaptığını çok merak ediyordum. Trajik bir yaşam hikâyesi okumak istiyorsanız, hemen okuyun bu kitabı. Orijinal dilinde okumanızı tavsiye ederim.
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It gets 4 stars because the farking font and free association paragraph style KILLED me (otherwise, it's probably 4.25). I never read this when Oprah told me to and I still didn't read it when she told me not to. I picked it up now because it popped up on about 10 different "Kelly, stop avoiding it and just read this YOU IDIOT" lists and I'm glad I did. It was graphic, dark and so absolutely grotesque that I had to put it down a couple of times, but man was it good. If asked my opinion, I believe Frey's story is about 75% pure bullshit. That's alright by me, though. It's still a good read.
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I stopped reading about half way. There was so much about this book that I didn’t like.
I didn't like the way it was written.
The inconsistent use of capitalized nouns.
The lack of quotation marks.
One word sentences often written as a list.
It's repetitive:
Over and over, descriptions of his meals in the dining room.
Over and over, descriptions of him throwing up.
Over and over, descriptions of him showering.
Over and over, that he’s an Alcoholic, Addict, Criminal.
Over and over, how f*d up he is.
It's unbelievable:
"I wake to the drone of an airplane engine and the feeling of something warm 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. I open them and I look around and I'm in the back of a plane and there's no one near me. I look at my clothes and my clothes are covered with a colorful mixture of spit, snot, urine, vomit and blood."
Really? They let someone in that condition board a plane without a traveling companion?
Root canal surgery without even a local anesthetic? What would have happened if he’d needed to have his appendix out?
He gets into an altercation with a member of the staff at the clinic, he trashes his room at the clinic, he breaks the rule of not speaking to female patients at the clinic, and he doesn’t get asked to leave?
The book is:
Long winded.
Dry.
Boring.
Unbelievable.
Tedious.
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Where to even start!! First off, this did not feel like a typical addiction book. Freys style of writing enticed me from page one and made it so interesting to read. I was hooked! Overall, I think it was an incredible story and couldn’t care less about whether it’s titled a fiction or a memoir. I love it regardless of the genre!!
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This book's title is a little misleading. It's actually just one gigantic piece. Of absolute bullshit. That anyone was remotely surprised when it was revealed that Frey embellished portions of this "memoir" is in itself shocking. It reads like a novel the entire way though -- the characterization, the arc, the dialogue. The character Frey creates for himself is totally unreal; he's a completely stubborn, petulant, tough-guy asshole throughout, but he's also really polite to certain people, he says things like "Thank you. I really appreciate what you've done for me here." when it's convenient for the story -- i.e. just when the reader is beginning to think Frey is a complete fuck, he says something nice. Which basically makes him come off as a total liar, which, of course, is exactly what Frey is.
The (obviously fabricated) dialogue is tiresome and clichéd. Check out this little gem. Frey is talking with a woman he's fallen in love with at rehab, and she's telling him how she's never been in love, that "Men always want to fuck me, but no one has ever loved me." Frey goes on to say (all of the book's dialogue is quotation-mark-less, unindented, and largely unattributed):
If it makes any difference, I don't want to fuck you.
She laughs.
Thanks.
I think you're beautiful, but I wouldn't fuck you because when we were done, I wouldn't want you to feel fucked. I would try to make love to you . . . but when it was over, I would want you to feel loved.
Give me a fucking break. Did a high schooler write this?
And what about the lack of indention? For some reason, Frey decided it would be cool to just not indent his paragraphs. Just, you know. For fun. To make it more real. It's completely ridiculous. He also capitalizes certain important Words here and there for emphasis; he actually does this to the subject of practically every other sentence. The effect is distracting, pretentious, tiresome, and silly. He uses all-caps to emphasize certain parts of dialogue, but then he also sometimes sets dialogue in bold, also for emphasis. Sometimes he even uses bold and all-caps, I guess when something is supposed to be super emphasized. Here's a question, though. What's more emphatic, bold or all-caps?
Probably the most distracting stylistic trick is Frey's hip and arbitrary dropping of commas and ands. Which leads to a lot of sentences like: I walk into the room the room is empty I walk to the bathroom I look at myself in the mirror. Or: I try to fall asleep I can't fall asleep. But then he'll do stuff like:
But then I remember.
The one thing.
That haunts me.
Haunts me the most.
Haunts me.
This is all an obvious attempt to cover up for lack substance with style, and it's rampant throughout the book and it's highly distracting.
And then so what does macho-man, fuck-the-twelve-step-program-I'm-bigger-than-that-I-don't-believe-in-God-I-can-do-this-shit-on-my-own-even-though-everyone-in-here-is-telling-me-I-can't James Frey do first thing when he gets out of rehab? He goes straight to a bar, orders literally a pint of bourbon (sorry: Bourbon) and just stares at it, has an internal fuck-you-I'm-fucking-better-than-you conversation with it, then walks off, symbolizing his victory over addiction. Yeah. I'm sure this actually happened.
Sincere congratulations to the author for overcoming his addiction, but this book is just pathetic.
The (obviously fabricated) dialogue is tiresome and clichéd. Check out this little gem. Frey is talking with a woman he's fallen in love with at rehab, and she's telling him how she's never been in love, that "Men always want to fuck me, but no one has ever loved me." Frey goes on to say (all of the book's dialogue is quotation-mark-less, unindented, and largely unattributed):
If it makes any difference, I don't want to fuck you.
She laughs.
Thanks.
I think you're beautiful, but I wouldn't fuck you because when we were done, I wouldn't want you to feel fucked. I would try to make love to you . . . but when it was over, I would want you to feel loved.
Give me a fucking break. Did a high schooler write this?
And what about the lack of indention? For some reason, Frey decided it would be cool to just not indent his paragraphs. Just, you know. For fun. To make it more real. It's completely ridiculous. He also capitalizes certain important Words here and there for emphasis; he actually does this to the subject of practically every other sentence. The effect is distracting, pretentious, tiresome, and silly. He uses all-caps to emphasize certain parts of dialogue, but then he also sometimes sets dialogue in bold, also for emphasis. Sometimes he even uses bold and all-caps, I guess when something is supposed to be super emphasized. Here's a question, though. What's more emphatic, bold or all-caps?
Probably the most distracting stylistic trick is Frey's hip and arbitrary dropping of commas and ands. Which leads to a lot of sentences like: I walk into the room the room is empty I walk to the bathroom I look at myself in the mirror. Or: I try to fall asleep I can't fall asleep. But then he'll do stuff like:
But then I remember.
The one thing.
That haunts me.
Haunts me the most.
Haunts me.
This is all an obvious attempt to cover up for lack substance with style, and it's rampant throughout the book and it's highly distracting.
And then so what does macho-man, fuck-the-twelve-step-program-I'm-bigger-than-that-I-don't-believe-in-God-I-can-do-this-shit-on-my-own-even-though-everyone-in-here-is-telling-me-I-can't James Frey do first thing when he gets out of rehab? He goes straight to a bar, orders literally a pint of bourbon (sorry: Bourbon) and just stares at it, has an internal fuck-you-I'm-fucking-better-than-you conversation with it, then walks off, symbolizing his victory over addiction. Yeah. I'm sure this actually happened.
Sincere congratulations to the author for overcoming his addiction, but this book is just pathetic.
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I read this after the scandal of Frey's embellishments came out. I found I was angry through the entire book, but once I committed to over 100 pages, I felt I had to finish it. When all is said and done, I'm not sure what to believe and what to discard as fantasy.
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The controversy surrounding this one has intrigued me since I was a pre-teen in the mid-2000s.
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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?), 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.
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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