Back after Oprah first announced that Million Little Pieces would be her next book for her revived club, I did a bad review of it on Amazon and got lambasted by people. First off, having worked for major booksellers over the last 18 years, this new genre -the memoir - has grown in leaps and bounds. And the drug recovery memoir seems to be one of better selling titles. I have a problem with these because at most, I know these people are embellishing their story.
James Frey has now admitted that he changed some events in his book, and now I don’t know what to believe. What I would like addressed, is why a 12 year-old started drinking in the first place. Of course, this goes with my theory that the richer and more influenced you are, the more dysfunctional you are. Its like the kids of preachers who turn out to be the more wilder of any kid anyone has ever known. Frey’s family has money, and he had no real reason to fall this way and not only his he at fault, but are his parents.
These memoirs -along with Koren Zailckas’ Smashed and Augusten Burroughs Running With Scissors - generally never come under a lot of scrutiny and publishers are more concerned aboutthe narrative flow than any sort of journalistic truth. Since Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (the John Berendt bestseller that most reviews claimed read like a novel), most publishers only care about the story. Even Frey himself admitted on the a recent Larry King Live that he originally shopped the book as a novel and had been turned down (and to be fair, it was also turned down as nonfiction). Once it was finally purchased, the editors eventually decided to publish the book as a memoir.
And while Frey has now acknowledged that there were embellishments, that he changed things (the names and places changed to protect the innocent, blah, blah, blah) he made no mention of this in any part of the book (like he has now done with Pieces’s sequel, My Friend Leonard).
So how much of Pieces is truth? I mean he admitted on today’s Oprah show that the story of a girl who cuts her recovery program short, then relapses and eventually kills herself is not true. He lied about that. He misled people and that -no matter how great his recovery from drug abuse is - and that will bring into question everything he writes.
He and his publisher owe many people a good explanation, and please don’t blame it on the marketing people. Frey went forward with Million as a memoir when he knew that was not true and his publishers and editors should be fired for hoisting a work of bad fiction as a work of real life experiences.
While there have been many who’ve supported this book - and continue to do so on Amazon - all I ask the reading public, that now that we’ve seen an author unveiled for the liar, please take these “memoirs” a little more serious. I enjoyed Running with Scissors, but do I believe all that Burroughs writes in there truthful and real?
Not for a minute. At best, he was an alcoholic with an abnormal upbringing who created a fantasy world to cope with the boundaries he so needed. Obviously, so was Frey.
But next time try a disclaimer.
James Frey has now admitted that he changed some events in his book, and now I don’t know what to believe. What I would like addressed, is why a 12 year-old started drinking in the first place. Of course, this goes with my theory that the richer and more influenced you are, the more dysfunctional you are. Its like the kids of preachers who turn out to be the more wilder of any kid anyone has ever known. Frey’s family has money, and he had no real reason to fall this way and not only his he at fault, but are his parents.
These memoirs -along with Koren Zailckas’ Smashed and Augusten Burroughs Running With Scissors - generally never come under a lot of scrutiny and publishers are more concerned aboutthe narrative flow than any sort of journalistic truth. Since Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (the John Berendt bestseller that most reviews claimed read like a novel), most publishers only care about the story. Even Frey himself admitted on the a recent Larry King Live that he originally shopped the book as a novel and had been turned down (and to be fair, it was also turned down as nonfiction). Once it was finally purchased, the editors eventually decided to publish the book as a memoir.
And while Frey has now acknowledged that there were embellishments, that he changed things (the names and places changed to protect the innocent, blah, blah, blah) he made no mention of this in any part of the book (like he has now done with Pieces’s sequel, My Friend Leonard).
So how much of Pieces is truth? I mean he admitted on today’s Oprah show that the story of a girl who cuts her recovery program short, then relapses and eventually kills herself is not true. He lied about that. He misled people and that -no matter how great his recovery from drug abuse is - and that will bring into question everything he writes.
He and his publisher owe many people a good explanation, and please don’t blame it on the marketing people. Frey went forward with Million as a memoir when he knew that was not true and his publishers and editors should be fired for hoisting a work of bad fiction as a work of real life experiences.
While there have been many who’ve supported this book - and continue to do so on Amazon - all I ask the reading public, that now that we’ve seen an author unveiled for the liar, please take these “memoirs” a little more serious. I enjoyed Running with Scissors, but do I believe all that Burroughs writes in there truthful and real?
Not for a minute. At best, he was an alcoholic with an abnormal upbringing who created a fantasy world to cope with the boundaries he so needed. Obviously, so was Frey.
But next time try a disclaimer.
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