A Million Little Pieces

Review By: Jeff Beck, Compare Book Techie
Review Score:

James Frey does not tell the truth. His bestseller, A Million Little Pieces is not so much a book, as he claims it is, but something closer to a ride. Despite what Frey's publisher will tell you, you won't actually read the words, you'll experience them.

It is almost impossible to review Jame Frey's book without delving into the controversy that surrounds it. Unless you live under a rock (or don't happen to watch The Oprah Winfrey Show), you know all about A Million Little Pieces, which was chosen to be an "Oprah Book Club" selection. The book was positioned by Frey and by Doubleday, the book's publisher, as an incredible nonfiction account of Frey's time in a drug rehabilitation center. However, only a few weeks after being featured on Oprah's show (and selling millions of copies), a "smoking gun" report came out, challenging many of the facts presented in the book. Frey went back on Oprah's program and flatly admitted to embellishing much of the story. While all of the characters exist, and the events did happen, Frey's experience was not quite the grand scale as presented.

The backlash was immediate. Because Frey had connected with so many people, had touched so many lives, the sense of betrayal was deeply felt by millions of fans. A Million Little Pieces had been so popular that the collapse left room for not one but two parody books: A Million Little Pieces of Feces - The fake memoir that's so much more fun than James Frey's by Python Bonkers, and A Million Little Lies by James Pinocchio and Pablo Fenjves (with the trademark foot covered in candies on the cover).

But truth or fiction, A Million Little Pieces is one of the most riveting books you will read this year. Frey was able to connect with so many people, not because he is an ingenious con, but because he is an incredible writer. The book is cram-packed with meaningful events and relationships, all of which speak directly to what being human is about. If you learn and grow by sharing in the account of another, the question of strict certainty are no longer paramount.

A Million Little Pieces opens with James Frey regaining conscience. He is on an airplane, though where he is heading or how he got there are mysteries to him. As the book repeatedly reminds you, Frey is an alcoholic, and a drug addict, and a criminal. And Frey has hit bottom. He is on his way to a rehabilitation clinic in the middle of Minnesota. He has a broken nose, a whole in his cheek, and his front teeth are missing. Frey has been an addict since childhood, and he is at the point that if he ever drinks again, he will probably die.

In the clinic, Frey proves to be a reluctant, if not "hell-bent on fighting the system" patient. If you are expecting the kindness and warmth of the clinic's staff to win Frey over, you are reading the wrong book. Not a single page of this book describes anything but Frey actively working to not fit in. Rather than a symbol of healing, the clinic comes to represent all that Frey is fighting against: a bureaucracy that cares more for its rules than it does for its people. And Frey knows quite a bit about the clinic's rules, effectively breaking every single one during his short tenure.

Though his "tough-guy" attitude and resolve to not participate in any program involving 12 steps remain throughout, Frey's recovery is remarkably successful. A Million Little Pieces is still the story of Frey kicking his habits, reconnecting with his parents, and putting his life on track. This success comes essentially from the friends Frey makes amongst the other patients. Most notably are Leonard, a mob-boss from Las Vegas who accepts Frey as his son (and is the primary subject of the sequel My Friend Leonard), and Lilly, a severely disturbed prostitute who becomes the pillar of Frey's inner-strength.

If you are looking for the facts, and nothing but the facts, then you will want to skip this book. Yet, in James Frey's embellishment, there is a level of honestly that can change the way you perceive the world around you. Not only will you better understand the world of addiction and recovery, but you will also learn more about friendship, loyalty, and acceptance. And that is where the truth lies.