The Rehabilitation of “A Million Little Pieces”
I picked up a copy of this morning’s San Diego Union Tribune and read an article entitled another memoir/novel pick. Here is a link to the article.
link Here is my take on whats happening. Instead of fessing up and admitting her book club pick of the rehabilatation of James Frey , “ A million Little Pieces”, was wrong, a fiasco, and a big mistake, Oprah is trying to use an “innocence by association” technique . She has chosen another memoir, a novel so personal that the author calls it a “memoir’ to rehabilitate her image and the image of James Frey. The book is called “ Night “ by Elie Wiesel and has been around since the 1950’s.
“A Million Little Pieces” was never marketed as a “novel”. I have my copy right here in front of me. There is nothing on the cover or in the blurbs in the front cover from reviewers to indicate it was a “novel”. Here is one blurb from a reviewer on the inside cover:
“ A stark, direct and graphic documentation of the rehabilitation process …..The strength of the book comes from the truth of the experience”---The Oregonian.
So Oprah picks a book that says it’s a novel/memoir for her next book club pick. Its like saying “ See here lots of people have memoirs that are part fiction so its no big deal really”.
Im not buying it Oprah and I hope others don’t either. A Million Little Pieces was presented as a factual experience not a work of ficton based loosely on some facts. James Frey lied and your covering up for him.
What should happen is that Oprah should apologize to her viewers for recommending a book that was not truthful. Im sure she probably didn’t know. The publisher presents it as truthful. But instead she calls up Larry King and stands behind a book that she has to know now that isn’t truthful.
And James Frey should fess up to his lies. He should go on Oprah or Larry King and admit that much of the book is fabrication and lies. The Smoking Gun website only pointed out the parts they could prove were wrong. They focused on the arrests and legal troubles where there are records. I think there are other parts of the book that are not true either. I don’t believe the part where he describes having extensive dental work without any anesthesia. Ive been in drug treatment programs myself and I never heard of anything like that happening.
Somehow Oprah stands behing the book because she believes in its message of hope for recovery for addicts. Here is what she said on Larry King:
“And I feel about "A Million Little Pieces" that although some of the facts have been questioned -- and people have a right to question, because we live in a country that lets you do that, that the underlying message of redemption in James Frey's memoir still resonates with me. And I know that it resonates with millions of other people who have read this book and will continue to read this book.
And, you know, one of the things James says in the book, for all the people who are going through any kind of addiction, is to hold on. And I just wanted to -- you know, I have been calling this number and it's been busy, trying to get through to say to all those people out there who have received hope from reading this book, keep holding on, because the essence of that, I don't doubt.”
One of the things some people don’t know is that James Frey originally tried to sell “A Million Little Pieces” as fiction, but that it got published as non-fiction. The most important thing James Frey could do is have some honesty. If he publicly stood up and said the following he would be my hero:
“You know I have to apologize to my readers. I let my book be published as non-fiction when I knew it wasn’t. I’m sorry and I apologize”
That would be a redeeming act for him. Because when all is said and done that’s what real recovery is all about: HONESTY.
As far as I’m concerened, both Oprah and James Frey could use a little more rehabilitation.
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