I’ve got two words for James Frey, disgraced author of A Million Little Pieces, and they should be delivered in the fashion made famous by Dianne Wiest in Bullets Over Broadway: "Don’t speak!"
You see, Frey’s wisely stayed in the shadows since getting flogged by Oprah Winfrey in the town square for fabricating portions of his best-selling memoir. But breaking his silence in an interview in Friday’s Guardian, Frey shows he’s still in desperate need of introspection — and an ego check.
On one hand, the guy claims he wants to be included in the same breath as Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Kerouac, and yet at the same time, expresses surprise that anyone would have made a big deal of his lies. "I just never thought that I was that big a target. I never thought that I would garner that much attention, that I was that big a deal." Worst of all, Frey seems all too willing to shift the blame off himself, and amazingly, place it on the American people who felt duped by him. "I think a lot of it had to do with what was happening and is still happening in our country, y’know?" he says of the outrage that accompanied his downfall. "People feel frustrated by a lot of distortions by politicians, by members of the media, by movie stars, by tabloid journalists, and it was like a sorta confluence of events that I happened to be in the middle of."
Um, what-ever.
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James Frey wrote lies and exaggerations in his “memoir” and he blames the American people? That’s crap! If he wants to know who to blame for his misfortunes, he should take a look at the man in mirror.
Oh, and I never read any of James Frey’s “memoirs”. I read enough lies everyday in newspapers!
the level of that man’s ignorance astounds me. and if he wanted to be famous and lie, he should write fiction like all the intelligent bs merchants. with an attitude like his the only way he’ll sell another book is if he titles his next memoir “Moronocracy: How I Rule,” the deluded fool.
I agree that James Frey has an extraordinarily large ego, but I do feel that he has been unfairly blasted through this ordeal. His book was published as a “memoir”, not an “autobiography,” and there IS a difference. Furthermore, though his own comparisons of himself to truly monumental writers like Hemingway and Fitzgerald are bogus; he does have a point. Hemingway and Fitzgerald both wrote fiction that winked at the lives they were actually living, and Hemingway, in particular, took great pleasure in blurring the lines for the public about which events in his books were true and which weren’t. Finally, an anecdote of the first memoir ever written — “1665 – A Journal of the Plague Year” (by Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe – which, by the way, people also took to be true for almost a year before it was revealed as fiction); the “journal” was published in 1722 under the initials H.F. as truth. It was later found out that the “journal” was a completely fictionalized account by Defoe, who would have been just 5 years old in 1665. No one has skewered Defoe post-mortem; we just look at this work as “historical fiction”. I understand that people felt “mislead” by James Frey, but is it really worth law suits to get their money back and publically shaming a man on national television? The book, true or not, is still an accurate portrayal of addiction and recovery, based (however loosely) on fact. Whatever problems we have with Frey himself, what’s so wrong with that?
When I walk into a bookstore, James Frey (yuk, I thought we were done with him) is listed under “Biography.” No matter the distinctions between “biography” and “memoir,” people ate “A Million Little Pieces” up because they thought it was true. That’s why no publisher would print it as a fiction, because they knew it wouldn’t sell.
And as wide-eyed as James Frey tries to portray himself, anyone who has sent a manuscript to 17 publishers, knows the differences between “fiction” and “memoir” and could have cleared up the lies before the book ever went to print. But he didn’t because he likes fame and money and money more. That’s where the outrage comes from. I’m sure the book is very healing for people (clearly, they’re still buying it) but just be honest. if he’s as good a writer as he thinks he is, he should be able to turn 250 pages about coming down off a sugar rush into the stuff of literary legend. He isn’t. He skipped steps. He should be forgotten.
Everyone, please go to James Frey’s official web site, http://www.bigjimindustries.com. It’s so… validating. By that I mean it’s really shitty. I don’t care that he lied- I think it’s good for someone to one-up a megalomaniac like Oprah. I just cared that he was such a puss about it. And to prove my point, read his shitty blog and message board.
Did anybody actually bother to read the interview? Its not Frey who compares himself with Hemingway or Keroac, its the interviewer. And even though he didn’t write the whole truth in the book its still a valid point to blame the american public for its hypocrisy.
As so often the South Park guys put their fingers on that in a brillaint way. Check out the recent episode A million little fibres.
Kit Sung, Do YOU read? It is, in fact, Frey’s own quote…he compares himself to those writers. I know it’s a lot to make it from the start of the article to the end, but…
I do not care that James Frey told some lies in his book.The fact is his books were great,true or not true. Oprah is a hypocrit Do you really think all of her ideas are her own.I strongly doubt it.It is her staff that makes her shows work. I wou;d in a minute buy another book written by Mr.Frey
I do not care that James Frey told some lies in his book.The fact is his books were great,true or not true. Oprah is a hypocrit Do you really think all of her ideas are her own.I strongly doubt it.It is her staff that makes her shows work. I wou;d in a minute buy another book written by Mr.Frey
I hated seeing Oprah tear him apart on her show. When it comes to ego, she tops Frey by a huge margin. Dont get me wrong, I like Oprah and think she’s done a lot of good things but putting Frey up on a pedastal only to tear him down later was extremely uncomfortable to watch. She brings him on her show so he can tell his side of the story and then instead, gives him a verbal spanking on national TV just to seperate herself and her image from his once and for all. It was far worse seeing Oprah abandon Frey than it was to find out he hadnt told the entire truth in his book.
As for Frey’s lies – I’m willing to bet he was told to spice up the book if he wanted to get it published… so he did. In retrospect, it was a mistake but I sincerely doubt he’s the first person to exagerate in his memoirs.
One thing I will say – the book is inspirational. Fact or fiction, it has changed lives.
I purchased A MILLION LITTLE PIECES after – coincidentally – reading the review for it in EW.
At the time I was in a million little pieces myself, and I found solace in Frey’s dark confessions and struggle to regain composure of his downward spiralling life.
I thought if HE could dig himself out of such a deep and desolate hole, why can’t I?
That book came at an oppotune time for me.
I bought MY FRIEND LEONARD with anticipation; although it certainly does not hold the first book’s emotional weight, I still thoughly enjoyed it.
Then the smokinggun.com controversy hit. And OPRAH.
I felt jipped, duped, made a fool.
I still do.
The appeal of PIECES for me was the belief that this man lived thru hell and came out alive and well.
Now I don’t know what to believe.
His lies have made me think twice about purchasing another author’s memoir.