A Million Little Pieces

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A Million Little Pieces

Author	James Frey
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Memoir/Fiction
Publisher	Random House
Publication date	April 15, 2003
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	0-385-50775-5
Followed by	My Friend Leonard

A Million Little Pieces is a partially-fabricated^[1] memoir by James Frey. It tells the story of a 23-year-old alcoholic and drug abuser and how he copes with rehabilitation in a Twelve Steps-oriented treatment center.

Released widely on April 15, 2003 by Doubleday Books, a division of Random House, the book garnered international attention after it was reported in January 2006, that the book contained fabrications and was not, as originally represented by the author and publisher, a completely factual memoir.

Before the embellishments of his book were reported, the book received mixed feedback. While some critics, such as Pat Conroy^[2] praised the book, calling it "the War and Peace of addiction," others were not as impressed by the gruesome nature of the book and Frey's overall attitude that sets the tone for the book. For example, critic Julian Keeling^[3], a recovering addict, stated that "Frey's stylistic tactics are irritating...none of this makes the reader feel well-disposed towards him". Also, author Heather King said that "A Million Little Pieces rings false"^[4]. In September of 2005, the book became an Oprah's Book Club selection. The book shortly thereafter was the number one paperback "non-fiction" book on the New York Times Best Seller list for 15 straight weeks and quickly became the number 1 book on Amazon.com. By January 28, 2006, it had fallen to number four on the Amazon.com list with Winfrey's following selection, Night by Elie Wiesel, taking over the top position.

A notable feature of this book is its lack of quotation marks to indicate direct discourse. Instead, a new line is started each time. The fact that the author uses this same style to indicate his internal thoughts, often interspersed between direct discourse from himself and others, gives the book a unique and sometimes confusing writing style, purportedly reflecting the nature of his experience in the treatment center. Frey makes frequent use of this stream of consciousness writing technique, which allows the reader to better understand his version of the events. Frey's unique writing style also involves his capitalizing nouns throughout the book for unclear reasons. Frey also uses heavy repetition of words throughout the text.

1 Summary
2 Controversy
3 Reactions to controversy
4 Pop Culture
5 References
6 External links
- 6.1 Reviews

[edit] Summary

A badly tattered James awakens on an airplane to Chicago, with no recollection of his injuries or of how he ended up on the plane. He is met by his parents at the airport, who take him to a rehabilitation clinic. We find out that James is 23 years old, and has been an alcoholic for ten years, and a crack addict for three. He is also wanted by the police in three different states on several charges.

As he checks into the rehab clinic, he is forced to quit his substance abuse, a transition that we find out later probably saves his life, but is also an incredibly agonizing event. As part of this, he is forced to undergo a series of painful root canals, without any anesthesia because of possible negative reactions to the drugs. He copes with the pain by squeezing tennis balls until his nails crack. When challenged on this incident, specifically, during his second Oprah appearance, Frey said that it may have been "more than one" root canal procedure and may or may not have included Novocaine, as he remembers it. Throughout his stay, he refuses to buy into the notion of victimhood, and instead chooses to blame his misfortunes solely on himself and as the result of his own decisions. Because of this view he rejects the concept of the Twelve Steps that is recommended to him at the clinic and chooses to proceed with his recovery without complaint or blame on others, and also with the knowledge that he will die if he begins his substance abuse again.

The book follows Frey through the painful experiences that lead up to his eventual release from the centre, including his participation in the clinic's family program with his parents, despite his strong desire not to. Throughout the novel, Frey speaks of the "Fury" he is fighting, which he sees as the cause of his desire to drink alcohol and use drugs. The "Fury" could be seen as the antagonist of the novel, because he believes that he will not be able to recover until he learns to ignore it or "kill it."

Frey meets many interesting people in the clinic, whom he forms relationships with and who play an important role in his life both during and after his time in the clinic. These people include a mafia boss who plays a vital role in his recovery (subject of Frey's other novel My Friend Leonard), and a woman drug addict with whom he falls in love, despite strict rules forbidding contact between men and women at the clinic. James finally recovers and never relapses.

[edit] Controversy

After a six week long investigation, The Smoking Gun published an article on January 8, 2006 called A Million Little Lies. The article described fabrications in Frey's account of his drug abuse experiences, life, and criminal record.^[5] According to CNN, The Smoking Gun's Editor, William Bastone, said "the probe was prompted after the Oprah show aired". He further stated, "We initially set off to just find a mug shot of him... It basically set off a chain of events that started with us having a difficult time finding a booking photo of this guy".^[6]

The Minneapolis Star Tribune had questioned James Frey's claims as early as 2003. Frey responded then by saying, "I've never denied I've altered small details."

Recently, stories surfaced about Random House, publisher of A Million Little Pieces, deciding to give full refunds to anyone who has purchased this book directly through it. According to a Gawker.com report^[7], customers could have a claim to money if they truly felt deceived by Frey.

In an article detailing the book, Frey is quoted saying he "stands by the book as being the essential truth of my life".^[8] However, on January 26, 2006, Frey once again appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and this time admitted that the same "demons" that had made him turn to alcohol and drugs had also driven him to fabricate crucial portions of his "memoir"; it first having been shopped as being a fiction novel but declined by many, including Random House itself. Oprah told Frey that she felt "really duped" but that, "more importantly, I feel that you betrayed millions of readers." She also apologized for her previous telephoned statement to Larry King Live — when Frey appeared on that show January 11, 2006 — that what mattered was not the truth of Frey's book, but its value as a therapeutic tool for addicts. Oprah said, "I left the impression that the truth is not important."^[9] All of Oprah's reactions as well as video clips of her interview with Frey are found within her book club's website.^[10]

On January 13, 2006, Steven Levitt, co-author of the book Freakonomics, stated in his blog that, having searched the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention database of mortality detail records, he was unable to identify a single death that reasonably closely matched Frey's description of the circumstances of the death of "Lilly", Frey's alleged girlfriend in the book.^[11] Following Frey's admission to Winfrey that he had altered Lilly's method of suicide in the book from cutting her wrists to hanging, on January 27, 2006, Levitt recorded on his blog that he was again unable to find a recorded death consistent with Frey's revised description.^[12] As Levitt states,

"Frey’s primary defense has been to say that his criminal history is a minor part of the book and these inconsistencies do not substantively change the meaning of the story. Of course, his criminal history is the only thing that thesmokinggun.com actually looked into. Given that virtually nothing checked out, it doesn’t bode well for the veracity of the rest of the book."

[edit] Reactions to controversy

The publishers of the novel, Doubleday and Anchor Books, initially stood by Frey. But further examination of the evidence eventually caused the publishers to alter their stances. They released a statement noting, "When the Smoking Gun report appeared, our first response, given that we were still learning the facts of the matter, was to support our author. Since then, we have questioned him about the allegations and have sadly come to the realization that a number of facts have been altered and incidents embellished." [3] As a consequence, the publishers decided to include a publisher's note and an author's note from Frey as disclaimers to be included in future publications. According to the source at the company, there had been some disagreement among editors at the publishing house about Mr. Frey’s authenticity, but the early dissenters had been silenced by the book’s success, both pre- and post-Oprah.^[13]

Random House issued a statement regarding the controversy. It noted that future editions of the book would contain notes from both the publisher and Frey on the text, as well as prominent notations on the cover and on their website about the additions. On September 12, 2006, Frey and publisher Random House, Inc. reached a tentative legal settlement, where readers who felt that they had been defrauded by Frey's A Million Little Pieces would be offered a refund. In order to receive the refund, customers must submit a proof of purchase, pieces of the book itself (page 163 from the hard cover or the front cover from the paperback), and complete a sworn statement indicating that they purchased the book under the assumption that it was a memoir.

In Frey's note to readers^[14], which will be included in future editions of the book, he apologized for fabricating portions of his book and for having made himself seem "tougher and more daring and more aggressive than in reality I was, or I am." He added,

"People cope with adversity in many different ways, ways that are deeply personal. [...] My mistake [...] is writing about the person I created in my mind to help me cope, and not the person who went through the experience."

Frey admitted that he had literary reasons for his fabrications, as well:

"I wanted the stories in the book to ebb and flow, to have dramatic arcs, to have the tension that all great stories require."

Nevertheless, he defended the right of memoirists to draw upon their memories, not simply upon documented facts, in creating their memoirs.^[15] Additionally, Frey has discussed the controversy and stated his side of the argument on his blog.^[16]

Shortly after Frey's return to the Oprah Winfrey show, the Brooklyn Public Library went as far as recataloging Frey's book as fiction, although it appears most other libraries have not followed suit. The New York Times Best Seller list still includes it on the Paperback Nonfiction List as of September 2006.

Regardless of this controversy, the book has been published in twenty-nine languages worldwide and has sold over 5 million copies. The majority of these sales occurred after Oprah announced it as the new Oprah's Book Club book.

On January 18, 2006, Marty Angelo, prison minister and author of the book Once Life Matters: A New Beginning, came to the defense of James Frey in a press release. While Angelo did not condone the inclusion of fictional elements in a book marketed as non-fiction, he stated, “The controversy surrounding the recent accusations that Frey embellished some of his statements in his book is relatively minor compared to the fact this man claims he cleared one of the biggest hurdles in his life—his substance abuse. That’s the bottom line issue.”

“Right now the media seems to be negatively attacking the messenger instead of concentrating on promoting the positive message of redemption...” Angelo added. “In terms of the benefit to readers as a self-help book, the message is the key issue, not the minor story details. One needs to stay focused on what the real message is—overcoming addiction.”^[17]

On July 28, 2007, at a literary convention in Texas, publishing legend Nan Talese blasted Oprah Winfrey for being "mean and self-serving," having a "holier-than-thou" attitude as well as having "fiercely bad manners" during Oprah's attack on James Frey on January 26, 2006. Talese said she and Frey were led to believe the show was going to be a panel discussion on "Truth in America." Just before air time, both Talese and Frey were told the topic of the show had been changed to "The James Frey Controversy," thus the ambush began. Talese stated that Oprah needed to apologize for her behavior on the show. Talese was unapologetic about publishing Frey's A Million Little Pieces and commented the gripping book has great value for anyone who must deal with a loved one who is an addict.^[18]

[edit] Pop Culture

The story of A Million Little Pieces was parodied in Season 10, Episode 5 of South Park entitled "A Million Little Fibers". In the South Park episode, the character Towelie (a talking, living towel that "gets high" a lot) writes a fictional memoir about his life and draws criticism from Oprah and the media.