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A Million Little Pieces
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A Million Little Pieces
Author: James Frey

Book Information
Publisher: Random House
Book Type: Paperback
Rating:

ISBN-13: 9780307276902 - ISBN-10: 0307276902
Publication Date: 9/22/2005
Pages: 430

Book Description:
Publisher Comments (before the controversy):

Intense, unpredictable, and instantly engaging, A Million Little Pieces is a story of drug and alcohol abuse and rehabilitation as it has never been told before. Recounted in visceral, kinetic prose, and crafted with a forthrightness that rejects piety, cynicism, and self-pity, it brings us face-to-face with a provocative new understanding of the nature of addiction and the meaning of recovery.

By the time he entered a drug and alcohol treatment facility, James Frey had taken his addictions to near-deadly extremes. He had so thoroughly ravaged his body that the facility's doctors were shocked he was still alive. The ensuing torments of detoxification and withdrawal, and the never-ending urge to use chemicals, are captured with a vitality and directness that recalls the seminal eye-opening power of William Burroughs's Junky.

But A Million Little Pieces refuses to fit any mold of drug literature. Inside the clinic, James is surrounded by patients as troubled as he is--including a judge, a mobster, a one-time world-champion boxer, and a fragile former prostitute to whom he is not allowed to speak about their friendship and [whose] advice strikes James as stronger and truer than the clinic's droning dogma of How to Recover. James refuses to consider himself a victim of anything but his own bad decisions, and insists on accepting sole accountability for the person he has been and the person he may become--which runs directly counter to his counselors' recipes for recovery.

James has to fight to find his own way to confront the consequences of the life he has lived so far, and to determine what future, if any, he holds. It is this fight, told with the charismatic energy and power of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, that is at the heart of A Million Little Pieces: the fight between one young man's will and the ever-tempting chemical trip to oblivion, the fight to survive on his own terms, for reasons close to his own heart.

A Million Little Pieces is an uncommonly genuine account of a life destroyed and a life reconstructed. It is also the introduction of a bold and talented literary voice.

Publisher Comments (after the controversy):

The controversy over James Frey's A Million Little Pieces has caused serious concern at Doubleday and Anchor Books. Recent interpretations of our previous statement notwithstanding, it is not the policy or stance of this company that it doesn't matter whether a book sold as nonfiction is true. A nonfiction book should adhere to the facts as the author knows them.

It is, however, Doubleday and Anchor's policy to stand with our authors when accusations are initially leveled against their work, and we continue to believe this is right and proper. A publisher's relationship with an author is based to an extent on trust. Mr. Frey's repeated representations of the book's accuracy, throughout publication and promotion, assured us that everything in it was true to his recollections. When the Smoking Gun report appeared, our first response, given that we were still learning the facts of the matter, was to support our author. Since then, we have questioned him about the allegations and have sadly come to the realization that a number of facts have been altered and incidents embellished.

We bear a responsibility for what we publish, and apologize to the reading public for any unintentional confusion surrounding the publication of A Million Little Pieces. We are immediately taking the following actions:

*We are issuing a publisher's note to be included in all future printings of the book.
*James Frey has written an author's note that will appear in all future printings of the book.
*The jacket for all future editions will carry the line "With new notes from the publisher and from the author."

The author's note begins:

A Million Little Pieces is about my memories of my time in a drug and
alcohol treatment center. As has been accurately revealed by two journalists
at an Internet Web site, and subsequently acknowledged by me, during
the process of writing the book, I embellished many details about my
past experiences, and altered others in order to serve what I felt was the
greater purpose of the book. I sincerely apologize to those readers who
have been disappointed by my actions....

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Top Member Book Reviews

Josephanie A. (puppyfred) wrote on 6/5/2007...

35 member(s) found this review helpful.

So Oprah had a hissy fit over this book. So people were put off because of some alleged fictionalization of this story. Regardless, it is excellent reading, and the author either has done a tremendous amount of research into addiction and recovery, or experienced addiction and recovery to tell this chilling story. In all reality, when one tells their side of a story, who isn't tempted to expound upon the truth a bit? Embellishment makes for good story telling. The only difficulty I had with the story is that an addict as severe as Frey could gain and maintain sobriety in as short a time as six weeks.

Sharon H. (busy4ever) wrote on 6/21/2007...

23 member(s) found this review helpful.

Being the wife to an addict and alcoholic(10 years sober) I really enjoyed the book. I felt like it was something I needed to read. A great insite to what getting clean "feels like".

Fiction or non-fiction, it doesn't really metter, it's still a great story.

Heather J. H. (neongreengeisha) wrote on 6/18/2007...

20 member(s) found this review helpful.

An amazing novel. I wasn't interested in it until after the hype about the story being partially fiction. Even with that in mind, this book was excellent; one of the few life-changing novels I've read in my life.
Frey's writing makes him one of your family members or a close friend. You want him to succeed in sobering up and you hurt when he hurts.
Truly beautiful and incredibly sad, this novel will haunt you for a long time after you've read it.

Shawna W. (vida81469) wrote on 4/14/2008...

19 member(s) found this review helpful.

This book isn't at all what Oprah claimed it to be....I never finished it. It is just garbage. He just uses this book as a platform to have an excuse to use expletives repeatedly and be completely a fool. You can tell it isn't a memoir....it is just overly exaggerated....overly everything. I work with at-risk, drug/alcoholic people. None of which are over the top like Mr. Frey.

Amy W. (LanesHotMom) wrote on 5/13/2007...

15 member(s) found this review helpful.

A really good book, even though all the stuff came out later on the Oprah show ,about it also being a little bit of fiction as well as a memoir of addiction, it was still a really good book. I really couldn't have cared less if it was real or fiction...it was a riveting realistic portrayal of addiction.

Danielle (DaniLynn) wrote on 3/13/2006...

14 member(s) found this review helpful.

I could not finish this book. If I thought that the whole thing was completely true, it might have been a little more tolerable. However, it just isn't well written enough for fiction.

Jodi P. (antsmarching81) wrote on 7/22/2007...

13 member(s) found this review helpful.

To be honest, I didn't finish this book. I got about halfway through and quit reading it. I found the style of writing to be very annoying, and the story was not the least bit captivating for me. I don't get what all the hype about this book was.

Barb F. wrote on 6/2/2007...

11 member(s) found this review helpful.

A controversial memoir about a young man suffering from substance abuse - I enjoyed it immensely regardless if it really occurred like this or not.

Lauren K. (disconsolate) wrote on 8/10/2007...

10 member(s) found this review helpful.

This book took quite a while to suffer through. The repetition used for effect got old, pretty fast, and while a few parts of the book towards the middle and end are underline worthy (literary lines of brilliance), the book on the whole fails to inspire the reader, or leave them with a feeling of importance ("now that was a story worth telling!")...I felt as though I'd wasted half my week trying to sit through this novel. The fact that it's mostly false doesn't help either. The lack of style in writing can't make this story stand on it's own as a fictional piece of work. I can excuse stories that are embellished, but only if they're good books in the end.
Also, I've read stories of addiction before, and I know recovering addicts...James seems a bit too compliant with the clinic at first. In the first couple weeks his character is already talking about this rehab being a good thing. Addicts are reluctant. It's just fact. They want their drugs--- they need them, and they'll do anything to get out of clinic.
Overall...
2 stars out of 5.

Jeannie C. (yogagirl) wrote on 7/9/2007...

8 member(s) found this review helpful.

Who cares if he made this stuff up? It's so entertaining! Read it anyway!


Please Rate these Book Reviews

Christine A. wrote on 11/10/2009...


An interesting book. Not sure what all the contraversy was about. Whether James Frey experienced all, any or a portion of what he documented seemed irrelevant to me. I think the true attraction of the account was its openness. It's not a shy sharing of information, nor is it particularly shocking. But, it was a good-enough read, the characters held my interest and the antagonist/protagonist (yes, they seem to be one in the same) revealed himself to an appropriate degree without seeming terribly self-serving. Definitely worth reading for yourself to form an educated opinion about its merits. There are also a few devices used (capitalization of certain words) which was intriguing...I couldn't quite crack the code on that, but it added to my interest level.

Denise T. (tiptondm) wrote on 10/17/2009...


I wasn't that impressed with this book. I don't know why Oprah was so fascinated with it.

Amanda D. (sandwhichofEVIL) wrote on 10/9/2009...


It started out intense and riveting. But by the middle of the book, I was just plain tired of the cheesy, the bitchy, and the overly-dramatic tone the author took on. I can understand artistic license, but on some of these scenes, I couldn't believe he didn't insert a dun-dun-DUN somewhere. And the character James portrays himself as is oddly unrealistic as well: from callous and unfeeling one minute, to a big ball of sensitivity the next without even blinking. To be quite frank, there were moments /I/ couldn't stand his teenage-rebellion style refusal to follow anyone's rules or advice. But of course, unfailingly, something happens immediately afterward to portray him as a saintly hero.

Don't get me wrong. I appreciate the author's plight against his addiction, and his desire to share it with others. What I don't appreciate, is the soap-opera he turned his memoir into and the rediculous turns it takes from reality.

Madge C. (dmconn1) wrote on 9/15/2009...


I just can't get into this book especially knowing that the author embellished on so many levels. I feel the publisher handled the controversy well, but I still don't have the interest to complete it. I've had it sitting on my bookshelf a very long time, and finally decided to read it or post, and I believe this is the first time I have not finished a book. Waste of my time!

Megan A. wrote on 8/11/2009...


This isn't even a very good fake...I'm amazed that so many people were sucked in by Frey's farce.

The only reason to read this book is because you're curious about the controversy surrounding it.

Sherrill G. (nicljack) wrote on 6/26/2009...


really liked this book.

Raylene G. (RDG) wrote on 6/25/2009...


I really enjoyed this even though it turned out parts aren't true

Tricia - Shakopee, MN wrote on 6/25/2009...


A look into a chemical dependency center for addicts. Based in Minnesota.

Sallianne D. (traveller) wrote on 5/10/2007...


This is an Oprah's Book Club choice, and the author did appear on the Show.

Aleca N. wrote on 3/23/2007...


The front cover is a little worn- I would still say it is in good condition.


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