oceanlistener's review against another edition
1.0
The real question with this book isn't whether or not it's all made up (it's obviously at least 80%, if not 100%, fiction). To me, the question is whether or not it matters- which is why I picked up this book in the first place.
Isn't a good book a good book, fiction or nonfiction? I believe fiction is important because it tells us about ourselves and the world around us, so maybe it shouldn't matter.
Turns out, it does. This book is incredibly poorly written. I might be willing to accept this as the true story of a drug addict who drank and smoked crack all the way through high school and never learned to write but still had some truth to tell. Turns out (and I didn't know this about myself before reading this book) I hold actual fiction to a higher standard of writing than a crackhead memoir.
I'm not entirely sure why this would be true. Why does Virginia Woolf get to use stream-of-consciousness, but not James Frey? Why can Cormac McCarthy ditch all reasonable punctuation, but not James Frey? I don't have the answers to those questions, except the empirical. A Million Little Pieces is basically unreadable.
On top of that unforgivable sin, there's the fact that the characters don't ring true, even for a work of fiction. James Frey is an absolute asshole to everyone. He's 23 but acts like he's 13. All he does is vomit and stare (and sometimes laughs at the horrible things he's done, but more in a psycho-killer way than a 'laughter is one way of dealing with life' way). Luckily for him, people in rehab love adolescent jerkwads, so his rehab fairy godfathers (a mobster and a federal judge) get him out of the jail time he's earned for crimes he completely admits to.
The point of this book is that James Frey wants us all to know that a) James Frey a sick, sorry fuck, but he knows that about himself and will acknowledge it before you can, so that makes him super-awesome; b) he's an asshole to everyone, but he's so fucking rad that people fall over themselves to help him all along the way; and c) Poor saps who can't control themselves can go to all the AA meetings they like, but bad-ass motherfuckers like James Frey can Just Say No because he's basically the Chuck Norris of addicts; d) Although James Frey believes that addiction is a choice and addicts are just weak-willed, he actually wants you to know that James Frey is a crackhead because of genetics and ear infections; and e) James Frey's pale green eyes are so beautiful he can barely look into them, his ex-girlfriend had arctic blue eyes, and his rehab girlfriend's eyes are water blue.
I'm serious about the eyes. This guy has some eye fetish.
I wish someone had warned me against the book on the grounds of its merits, rather than the fictionalized memoir part. Curiosity probably would have gotten the better of me in the end, though. Because I'm a book addict. Maybe I should write a "memoir" about it.
Isn't a good book a good book, fiction or nonfiction? I believe fiction is important because it tells us about ourselves and the world around us, so maybe it shouldn't matter.
Turns out, it does. This book is incredibly poorly written. I might be willing to accept this as the true story of a drug addict who drank and smoked crack all the way through high school and never learned to write but still had some truth to tell. Turns out (and I didn't know this about myself before reading this book) I hold actual fiction to a higher standard of writing than a crackhead memoir.
I'm not entirely sure why this would be true. Why does Virginia Woolf get to use stream-of-consciousness, but not James Frey? Why can Cormac McCarthy ditch all reasonable punctuation, but not James Frey? I don't have the answers to those questions, except the empirical. A Million Little Pieces is basically unreadable.
On top of that unforgivable sin, there's the fact that the characters don't ring true, even for a work of fiction. James Frey is an absolute asshole to everyone. He's 23 but acts like he's 13. All he does is vomit and stare (and sometimes laughs at the horrible things he's done, but more in a psycho-killer way than a 'laughter is one way of dealing with life' way). Luckily for him, people in rehab love adolescent jerkwads, so his rehab fairy godfathers (a mobster and a federal judge) get him out of the jail time he's earned for crimes he completely admits to.
The point of this book is that James Frey wants us all to know that a) James Frey a sick, sorry fuck, but he knows that about himself and will acknowledge it before you can, so that makes him super-awesome; b) he's an asshole to everyone, but he's so fucking rad that people fall over themselves to help him all along the way; and c) Poor saps who can't control themselves can go to all the AA meetings they like, but bad-ass motherfuckers like James Frey can Just Say No because he's basically the Chuck Norris of addicts; d) Although James Frey believes that addiction is a choice and addicts are just weak-willed, he actually wants you to know that James Frey is a crackhead because of genetics and ear infections; and e) James Frey's pale green eyes are so beautiful he can barely look into them, his ex-girlfriend had arctic blue eyes, and his rehab girlfriend's eyes are water blue.
I'm serious about the eyes. This guy has some eye fetish.
I wish someone had warned me against the book on the grounds of its merits, rather than the fictionalized memoir part. Curiosity probably would have gotten the better of me in the end, though. Because I'm a book addict. Maybe I should write a "memoir" about it.
booksbecreads's review against another edition
4.0
The opening to this book set up the story really well, it just clicked in your mind what the title was referring to and the context of the whole book.
They say the best lies are the ones based on the truth, and it would be interesting to know after the controversy of whether or not it was fiction what was fact, what was the embellishment of the truth and what were lies.
It was raw, life like and confronting at some points. There was a lot of swearing which to me made it seem like the author was trying too hard to make it tough and cement his image as a hard man. To me it was unnecessary and definately the amount of it was unnecessary.
SuBC: Intiminating book
They say the best lies are the ones based on the truth, and it would be interesting to know after the controversy of whether or not it was fiction what was fact, what was the embellishment of the truth and what were lies.
It was raw, life like and confronting at some points. There was a lot of swearing which to me made it seem like the author was trying too hard to make it tough and cement his image as a hard man. To me it was unnecessary and definately the amount of it was unnecessary.
SuBC: Intiminating book
emilybanksrn's review against another edition
3.0
Enjoyed this novel. Would’ve rated it 4 stars, but I found out after reading some of it that the author lies throughout the book.
carey_50's review against another edition
4.0
Even though I found out it was all a "sham" I still liked the book.
scholarhect's review against another edition
2.0
A little over 1/3 of the way through is all I could do. Originally I'd said the (unnecessary) endless repetition was "a clever literary technique, [that had] gone a shade beyond what it needed to be." After another 50 pages, it was unbearable, and I couldn't face the idea of another 250+ pages of the same. I liked the idea, but didn't care for the execution.
That said, I still don't care one way or the other how 'biographical' this was, and stand by the opinion that embellishment doesn't lessen the power of the message. For me, the message was let down by the style, that's all.
That said, I still don't care one way or the other how 'biographical' this was, and stand by the opinion that embellishment doesn't lessen the power of the message. For me, the message was let down by the style, that's all.
alexiscollins's review against another edition
3.0
I did not find out about the scandal until there were only about 100 pages left, for that I am extremely thankful. I got to read the majority of the book untainted.
This book was a roller coaster for me in that there were certain lines that gave me chills and certain sections that made me tear up, but there were also parts where I wanted nothing more than for Frey to get to the point.
This book was a roller coaster for me in that there were certain lines that gave me chills and certain sections that made me tear up, but there were also parts where I wanted nothing more than for Frey to get to the point.
laurenreadsbooks13's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.0
kickpleat's review against another edition
Am I embarrassed to have this on my book list? Oh yeah. I picked this book up after much hesitation just as the library was about to go on strike. I needed a big pile of books and I figured, why not. Don't make the mistake I made because there is just no reason to read this story. It's inauthentic and filled with the author's bravado. Skip it, looming library strike or not.