Written in a non-traditional and stream of consciousness style, Frey’s book, My Friend Leonard, breaks the stylistic boundaries set by traditional creative nonfiction. Frey uses run-on sentences, dialogue that is blurred together with text, and no discernable system of using paragraphs. Although it takes a little bit of time to get used to Frey’s story because of his iconoclastic writing style, it is well worth the wait.
tFrey writes about the friendship he had with a man named Leonard. Frey met Leonard at drug and alcohol rehab. Leonard, whose illegal business activities earn him lots of money, looks at Frey as the son he never had. As a result, Leonard always enters the story with a booming voice calling out, “My son, MY SON!” Leonard provides Frey with money, a job, and breaks from the daily toll of life with trips to Las Vegas, posh hotels, and restaurants. Leonard’s death at the end of the story is devastating to Frey and ends up signaling the end of Frey’s dysfunctional life and the beginning of something new.

4.5 Stars. James Frey knows how to tell a story, despite it being up for debate that not everything in his books are true, he paints a tragically beautiful picture.
Frey makes you feel as if you know these characters personally, so you become deeply invested in their lives. This was another page turner about grief, with sprinkles of love and laughter throughout.
His writing style may not be for everyone, but it’s definitely my cup of tea

oh are you kidding me .......
im literally ugly crying

Years ago I read James Frey's ( now known as heavy on the fiction) memoir A Million Little Pieces as an Oprah Pick. This is the sequel to that book which I bought years ago but after the scandal and fury heaped upon Frey and the denouncement of his first book, I probably just set aside. Anyway , unearthed and read while " weeding out" the crowded library, this is the story of James and his friend Leonard, a much more established and successful conman who after meeting him in rehab (at the end of " Million Pieces" ) adopts him as a son. I actually like Frey's simplistic style of writing , where sentences are not always complete, but still carry conviction, but as one might expect be warned of " jailhouse language." Frey's journey back from addiction is actually pretty interesting. If a story about honor among thieves or a lifelong friendship between mobster types could be called touching this is it. 3.5 stars

Probably one of the best books I have read this year. James Frey continues to write compelling and emotion provoking books that leave you with a dropped jaw. I actually cried at the end of this book. A must read!

Should it matter if a memoir is truthful? By asking this question, I guess it’s safe to say I went into James Frey’s My Friend Leonard with some misgivings. The act of memoir writing inherently produces meaning, but that’s not the same as manufacturing meaning, not the same as finding events (which possibly didn’t happen) to fit a pre-determined story. What’s called truth may lie in a fuzzy area of the memoirist’s memory not always accessible as a complete emotional/visual record. That’s why memoirists often take repeated stabs at the same memory as they try to determine what really happened (and what it all meant).

I don’t really like the idea of ‘fact checking’ memoirists, but knowing big parts of a memoir have been intentionally falsified changes how I react to a work. When I read the opening about jail time (in Frey’s work) which readers now know didn’t happen, I decided to read this as a fictional memoir and see where it took me. It was engaging. Leonard, a larger-than-life father-figure looms over James’ life after he leaves rehab and is a presence until the very end. I thought it was written in a clear and compelling style. Still, calling it memoir made me wonder about the authenticity of people and events in the memoir (and made me question how vulnerable Frey had made himself by writing the memoir) even though I had decided not to worry about ‘truth.’ For now, I’m giving it three stars, but I’m still thinking…

That was really powerful! I think this was even better than A Million Little Pieces. It was incredibly moving but still quite disturbing and hard to put down but still not suspenseful. He writes in such an interesting manner. I cried through most of this book.

If you have read the first book "A million little pieces" you are aware of the characters. The events happen slowly and at the end of the book a twist that I didn't see coming had me talking about it for days.

I never cared whether Frey's A Million Little Pieces was real or not. The truth is, if you enjoy his writing style, you're sure to be caught up in the environment and especially the characters he creates. I read this in one day on a flight from San Diego to Detroit.

My Friend Leonard pretty much picks up where A Million Little Pieces left off. If you thought it couldn't get any worse, think again. My Friend Leonard follows Frey's post-rehab trials and tribulations, and examines the continuation of the relationship he began building with one of his contacts from rehab. Touching, heartbreaking, and a testament to the strength of human willpower, whether it happened or not.

Before I dive in, I'll mention that following the questions to its authenticity as a memoir, I read this book as fiction.

I found this one pretty boring, I'm afraid. It's my first book by James Frey, so I'm new to his style of writing, but the punctuation and talk-style (don't know the 'official' name for it) writing quite bugs me.

It started out good, I thought. With the first few chapters having a significant death, but then after that I didn't feel like anything new was added to the plot. It did show that there's hope for everyone, a message I appreciated in how James got his life together after prison and rehab, a thing not too many people manage to do. I appreciated that immensely.

I, however, found it all redundant. We get it, you and Leonard are close, Leonard is shady. Also, the ending felt rather forced to me. That sudden 'plot twist'. There was no groundwork put down for Leonard being gay, and the only 'signs' James mentions are liking white and enjoying fashion? What? I felt like it was thrown in far too hastily.

I may sample a bit more of James Frey to see whether the style is the same in all his books, so if you read this and think there's something by him I should check out, please point me in that direction :)

Not sure what possessed me to add a book to my "to read" list that has an ashtray on it. I didn't even get past the first chapter. Awful sophomoric writing in a robotic manner. Waste of my time.

I was very skeptical when reading this one - but my book club picked it and I thought I'd give it a whirl. I was not a fan of 'A Million Little Pieces' but this book was definitely an improvement. I was expecting the same type of punctuation and non use of capitalization in this book, but that part was improved on. I couldn't help but wonder how much of the book was fact vs. fiction because of the first book. I actually felt connected to the charachters and couldn't put the book down because I needed to know what happened in the end. Frey did a wonderful job on engaging the reader. I wish that he would have written more about his wife and family. All in all I would definitely recommend this book if you don't have issues with foul language, drugs and alcohol...even if you do I would recommend it.