Reprinted from my blog from January 27, 2006:
A Million Little Problems Dept. – Fall Out From James Frey’s Fabrications
A week or so ago I ran a guest commentary by my colleague John Temple about his outrage at the apparent fabrications in James Frey’s memoir A Million Little Pieces. I have to admit that prior to seeing his comments, I had given little thought to the book. Drug memoirs (other than Hunter Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) hold little appeal to me. But over the last couple of weeks there has been a firestorm of criticism of Frey for either grossly exaggerating or outright fabricating what happened to him as an alcoholic and drug addict. Criticism seems to be particularly harsh because fans of the book feel betrayed by Frey and the emotions he brought out in them with what they thought was a true story.
No reader has been more public in her upset than media maven Oprah Winfrey, who had featured Frey on her book club. In the days immediately following the charges against Frey, Oprah stood by the author based on assurances that the book had only a few minor exaggerations. But Thursday she had Frey back on her show and let him have it with both barrels.
Here’s a brief excerpt from that interview:
While Frey’s major outing came from The Smoking Gun, a few critics had raised questions about the book’s authenticity when it was first released in 2003. The best example comes from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which addressed the issues in an article from July of 2003. The StTrib took on the issue largely because the rehab clinic Frey was treated at is located in the Minneapolis area. Frey’s story made the famous Hazelden Clinic look very bad, and the clinic has been fighting the image ever since.
One of the most interesting stories I’ve heard on the Frey case comes from NPR’s On The Media. In the interview, Brooke Gladstone talks with Andrew Goldberg of TSG, and book critic Adam Kirsch. The issue is not so much why Frey lied, but what why the book industry publishes a book that raises these kinds of questions.