Is there anyone out there in blog land who hasn’t heard of the raging number one best seller that is the talk of every town in this country, A Million Little Pieces by James Frey? It’s as well known as its promoter, Oprah Winfrey, who turns everything she touches into pure gold. Frey hit the Mother Lode when Oprah gave his book more than a good start by selecting it as her book of the month. The story of one man’s struggle with drugs and alcoholism, it is hailed as an honest, courageous and riveting memoir that one cannot put down after starting to read it.
As an author who has encountered problems during my writing career with definitions of what is plagiarism and what isn’t, after seeing Mr. Frey on Larry King Live last night, I can only say that I am more confused than ever about definitions and boundaries. Frey claims that out of more than 400 pages there are only 18 in dispute. Well, my friends, despite poetic warnings to never steal anything small, is not a little deceit still deceit? Is the truthful whole equal to the sum of its exaggerated parts or are some of the exaggerated parts better reading than the whole truth? Is this logically sound or merely the fodder for one big headache?
With all due respect to the most articulate Mr. Frey, I do believe that he knows the answer to the question Larry King posed more than once about whether his police record, which was mentioned in the book, was embellished or not. He doesn’t say yes and he doesn’t say no. He claims the Fifth Amendment or in other words, “only 18 pages of the more than 400 page book are in dispute.”
Larry King expressed the opinion that “people reading a memoir expect to read the truth, or at least the truth from the writer’s point of view.” In all fairness, Frey does admit that “there are embellishments”, and Oprah Winfrey, in a surprise telephone call, came to his defense. She said: “People have a right to question, but the issue of personal redemption resonates among us all.” If she can stand by him, then maybe so should we.
I question why the publishers did not check all references before publishing his book. The real question, however, is:
What do YOU think about all this?