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Loading... A Million Little Piecesby James Frey
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  branimal | Nov 17, 2009 |  The disjointed writing style of this book adds to the story in a way I didn't think it could. The lack of punctuation made it a bit hard, at times, to understand who was talking, but overall it was an effective way of relaying Frey's message. This book has faced a lot of controversy over whether or not it is, in fact, non-fiction. However, considering the truth of the story, I'm not sure if it really matters. Even if this didn't happen to Frey, it could happen to someone. The story is just as real, whether or not it's true. And it's just as touching and scary and heartbreaking even if this never really happened. This book tells of Frey's time in rehab (or maybe not), and of the people he met there, and the person he became there. It's painful to read, and sometimes vividly disgusting, but when you close the back cover, you won't be sorry, or think you wasted your time. Even if it was all lies. elliehughes | Nov 12, 2009 | A ridiculously engaging story of overcoming addiction. I had absolutely no interest in the controversy surrounding the book because as far as I'm concerned a good story is a good story. No one can memorialize any aspect of their own lives without personal bias or twist. James' addiction is palpable, and my heart raced right along with his. (  )1  sixteendays | Oct 26, 2009 | Reviewed by Taylor Rector for TeensReadToo.com This is a terrifying novel about drug and alcohol addiction and rehabilitation. Anyone who has been or is in rehab for anything should be required to read this book. Anyone who has family members in rehab should read this book. Basically, everyone over the age of 14 should have to read this book. It depicts the horrible tragedy of addiction and how Mr. Frey overcomes it. He knows that he has an addiction problem when he wakes up on a plane not knowing how he got there, where the plane is going, or how he got a broken nose and a hole through his cheek. When the plane lands, he gets off the plane and has his parents drive him to rehab, where he receives detoxification and learns how to control his drinking and drug addictions. The book is his journey through rehab and how be becomes a better person. There is a lot of vulgarity and things that seem inappropriate but are a must for the story. The language is probably how everyone talked and the extreme drug situations are really what he went through. There has been a lot of controversy over this book because there are parts that are "embellished" and altered. If you can see though all of that, then this book is truly amazing. I wouldn't suggest reading this book if you are under the age of fourteen due the language and theme of the book. You also might not want to read A MILLION LITTLE PIECES if you have a faint heart or easily get sick to your stomach because there are some extremely graphic scenes in the book. This is one I highly recommend, though. (  ) GeniusJen | Oct 12, 2009 | Good, but James Frey is a loser. The ending sucked too. (  ) RatSoup | Oct 7, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
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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.* Read the author's note. The jacket for all future editions will carry the line "With new notes from the publisher and from the author."
*Customers should find the Author's Note and Publisher's Note in copies purchased from Amazon.com after April 15, 2006.
I want a drink. I want fifty drinks. I want a bottle of the purest, strongest, most destructive, most poisonous alcohol on Earth. I want fifty bottles of it. I want crack, dirty and yellow and filled with formaldehyde. I want a pile of powder meth, five hundred hits of acid, a garbage bag filled with mushrooms, a tube of glue bigger than a truck, a pool of gas large enough to drown in. I want something anything whatever however as much as I can.
One of the more harrowing sections is when Frey submits to major dental surgery without the benefit of anesthesia or painkillers (he fights the mind-blowing waves of "bayonet" pain by digging his fingers into two old tennis balls until his nails crack). His fellow patients include a damaged crack addict with whom Frey wades into an ill-fated relationship, a federal judge, a former championship boxer, and a mobster (who, upon his release, throws a hilarious surf-and-turf bacchanal, complete with pay-per-view boxing). In the book's epilogue, when Frey ticks off a terse update on everyone, you can almost hear the Jim Carroll Band's brutal survivor's lament "People Who Died" kicking in on the soundtrack of the inevitable film adaptation.
The rage-fueled memoir is kept in check by Frey's cool, minimalist style. Like his steady mantra, "I am an Alcoholic and I am a drug Addict and I am a Criminal," Frey's use of repetition takes on a crisp, lyrical quality which lends itself to the surreal experience. The book could have benefited from being a bit leaner. Nearly 400 pages is a long time to spend under Frey's influence, and the stylistic acrobatics (no quotation marks, random capitalization, left-aligned text, wild paragraph breaks) may seem too self-conscious for some readers, but beyond the literary fireworks lurks a fierce debut. --Brad Thomas Parsons
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:01 -0400)
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I had to give it 3 and a half stars as I did enjoy it quite a lot, however, if 100% true, this easily would have made it to 4 and a half. (