James Frey's: A Million Little Pieces

[JenniferSempleSiegel]

I just read thesmokinggun.com article. They quoted parts of the book--kind of embarrassing, actually. Some of the passages are poorly written and cliched. Blah. More than that, the pivotal part of the book (the jail time) is an outright lie, built on a house of cards that crumbles horribly under scrutiny.

He presented himself as a drugged out felon when, in actuality, he was a pathetic frat boy kegger.

What is it about Oprah and the literary "bad boys"? Remember the Jonathan Franzen fiasco? When she selected his book The Corrections, he basically thumbed his nose at her, and proceeded to tank his career.

The entire Frey situation distresses me because now every memoir will be suspect, and that's really bad for the genre.

Jennifer
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[jlgwriter]

I'm about halfway through the Frey book. Hubby just finished it. When I'm done, I'll post our independent book reviews on here if anyone is interested.

BTW, Frey is supposed to be on Oprah today, I believe.
_________________
Jeanne

[Jmitch]

anyone see this? seems there has been a change of heart, and the complains from viewers has helped.

http://articles.news.aol.com/tv/article.adp?id=20060125202909990033&ncid=NWS00010000000001

[JenniferSempleSiegel]

I plan to tape the show, so I'll let you know what happens, LoloK.

I heard that the publisher will reimburse anyone who bought the book and is unhappy with it. Maybe Oprah will travel to Botswana and PERSONALLY return your money. Now THAT would be a classy act...

After you finish reading, let us know what you think. Was the expense and 250 km trip worth it, even though it's really fiction?

I almost ordered the book; I love reading memoirs and was really curious what kind of memoir would garner Oprah's attention... Glad I never got around to it, though. I may still read it, but I won't buy it, except as a cheap second hand book (like 25 cents) from a thrift shop.

Thesmokinggun.com article expressed surprise that Oprah selected this book because of its excessive foul language. While (historically) Oprah's selections are not entirely free of profanity, they do tend to be toned down.

I hope Oprah asks Frey the hard questions; if she stands up for his book without any real scrutiny, then she risks damaging her credibility. And that's too bad because I have always enjoyed her selections.

Her reputation is on the line, and what she does today may set the future course of her career.

I don't blame Oprah for choosing the book; she selected the book on the premise that its contents were true, and it's really not up to her staff to do a "check" on its authenticity--that's the responsibility of the publisher.

And shame on Frey's publisher; originally, he wanted to submit his book as fiction, and they refused to publish unless he presented it as a memoir. As a basically unknown writer, he caved in. My question (though you need not answer this on the board): how many of us would consider doing the same thing? We all know the difficulty of getting published by a traditional publisher, and if someone offered a publishing contract, would any of us stretch the truth?

I suspect that future Oprah memoir candidates WILL go through the wringer. And maybe that's a good thing. Publishers may begin to shy away from manuscripts that don't offer documentation for the facts presented, which could be a positive outcome.

Perception is an entirely different matter, and can never be proved or disproved by another person. For example, had Frey said (in text) that those five hours in the clink SEEMED like two or three months, there may not have been all this controversy. He could have even incorporated supposition, such as imagining being incarcerated for a long time, even developing scenes to SHOW how his fears of incarceration might have been played out. I don't think anyone could argue against that.

Also, he lied about his role in the girls' death (on the railroad tracks). Why not just say that the deaths had a huge impact on his life, even though he really didn't know the girls well?

Anyway, just some additional thoughts.

Jennifer
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[JenniferSempleSiegel]

WOW!

My respect for Oprah just went up 1000%. Thanks, Jmitch, for posting this article about Oprah's show, which won't be aired here until later today.

Now Frey can work on rehabbing his reputation, though I suspect his book will sell better than ever.

Jennifer
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[jlgwriter]

If you want a sneak preview of the Oprah show, there's a thread at http://www.writers.net that has most of the relevant transcript. (The poster lives in Chicago, I think.) Go to the writers.net site, click on the Literary Agents forum and look for the thread called, "A Sneak Preview of Frey on O."
_________________
Jeanne

[tammy]

[JenniferSempleSiegel]

Oprah's on right now here. What a train wreck for James Frey. It's becoming clear that very little of the book is true, and Oprah is TOTALLY livid--and hurt as well.

Jennifer
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Blog for student writing: http://www.Publishes.us
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[beijingjenny]

I'm still disappointed she didn't handle things better to begin with, i.e. considering things more carefully. But good for her for finally saying it's not okay to lie and call it the truth.

[JenniferSempleSiegel]

Mr. Frey is pretty much tongue-tied. He really looks pathetic. This is a low moment in his life, and I hope he (and other memoir writers) have learned an important lesson about truth. I am DEFINITELY going to go over my memoir and make such that the facts are absolutely correct.

Jennifer
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Blog for student writing: http://www.Publishes.us
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[JenniferSempleSiegel]

After viewing today's Oprah, I have come away with the following thoughts:

1) The memoirist is responsible for presenting a manuscript that is truthful and honest. It was interesting that Frey always referred to the people in his book as "characters," which, of course, is a fictional term.

2) The publisher is responsible for requiring documentation of the essential facts (e.g., police reports and other concrete records) and checking them out. Nan Talese, Frey's editor, also appeared on Oprah. Talk about waffly, and it's clear that she is beginning the process of distancing herself from the book. Oprah asked Ms. Talese why her firm doesn't hire ($20,000-30,000 a year) a researcher/fact checker to check out the facts of their memoirs. Talese said that the book "felt" authentic and that it didn't even occur to her and her staff that it wasn't true. (No one had a lawyer with them, which surprised me).

3) Regarding memoirs, the publishing industry is probably going to change in that publishers will publish fewer memoirs, but the ones that they do publish will be thoroughly researched and vetted--at least in the short term.

4) One cannot document a PERCEPTION of an author--how an author views an event cannot really be proved or disproved; that will ALWAYS remain a controversial aspect of the memoir genre. However, the event itself must be true and not created out of the memoirist's head.

5) My opinion: Frey fessed up because he was caught, not because it was the right thing to do. I don't get a sense that he really learned from this situation. Everyone talks about his "bravery," but he wasn't brave at all. He had no choice but to face the wrath of Oprah. AND IT WAS UGLY. The nice, supportive Oprah was gone. She went for Frey's juggler. She knew she had been conned, and she didn't like it one bit.

6) Ironically, A Million Little Pieces will continue to sell and will probably sit at top of the bestseller list for a long time, but readers will look at it differently. It will be read as the fiction it is. Also, readers will read the book out of curiosity, but I doubt that it will have much impact in terms of alcoholism and drug addiction.

7) If I were Frey, I'd go into hiding for a while and stop writing memoirs. If he sticks to fiction, billed as fiction, then, after an appropriate "rehab," he will still have his lucrative writing career.

After all, this event happened in the United States of America, and we're a very forgiving culture.

Cheers!

Jennifer
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[SHBueche]

The latest as of today 1/26 is that Oprah had James Frey on the show and gave him the riot act (didn't see the show, I've just read about it online).
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ShelleyBueche.com

[writertiff]

Are you kidding? He's going to REALLY write his memoirs now - Life of a Liar or some other gem and then he'll rake in millions. I am glad Oprah did this, but I don't like the way it came about. Even after she KNEW he had fabricated stuff, she called in her support. It was ONLY after her OWN fans were pissed at HER that she decided not to support Frey.

[JenniferSempleSiegel]

It's difficult to admit when you've been so totally duped; one's first reaction would be to deny that you've been duped (Look at all those people who fall for phishing scams; most of them just don't want to admit it).

Also, when Oprah called in her support of Frey on Larry King Live, the facts of the case were still emerging. Her response was a knee-jerk reaction to a surprising situation.

It was obvious that Oprah is upset and absolutely angry at Frey.

I say kudos to her.

Jennifer
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Blog for student writing: http://www.Publishes.us
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[wendy]

Jennifer I agree with what you've said, but I'm both surprised and disappointed that Oprah "went for Frey's juggler."

1. How does a newbie writer afford to have his own juggler?
2. What would he use a juggler for? (Is hiring a juggler something all aspiring writers should do?)
3. Why attack him?
4. Why not go for Frey's jugular and leave the poor juggler alone?