Review: A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

A Million Little Pieces may be, at this point, one of the most famous contemporary American novels.  Its cover (the hand coated in sprinkles in front of a Tiffany-blue background) is easily as recognizable and famous as the  Twilight hands holding a red apple.  At this point, is there anyone who hasn't heard of James Frey's "memoir" of drug rehabilitation and the ensuing chaos that followed after the Smoking Gun revealed that he had fabricated some of his story?  Especially after Oprah brought him on her show and rolled him over the coals for "conning" her?  

I must admit that it was partially the drama that piqued my interest when it came to A Million Little Pieces.  Yet, having finished it, I have to say that I'm in no way interested in the possibility that Frey embellished his memoirs.  Because at the end of the day, it didn't change my opinion of the book, one way or the other.

James is 23 years old when he wakes up on an airplane, his face beaten and some of his teeth broken and missing, on his way to drug and alcohol rehabilitation.  He has been drinking since he was a child and doing drugs since his early teenage years.  He is, as he puts it, "an Alcoholic and an Addict and a Criminal" -- addicted to booze and drugs of all kinds (especially crack cocaine) and wanted in three states.  He is told that his body is in such rough condition that, if he chooses to use drugs or alcohol again, he will be dead in a matter of days.  Faced with the choice of death or attempting rehab, but having little to no faith in the AA "Twelve-Step Program", James begrudgingly agrees to give sobriety a chance.

This is not light reading.  Not even close.  James' story is gritty, and it's raw, and it's really tough to read at parts.  The chapter about his oral surgery (performed without any anesthesia or painkillers, since he is in rehab) was particularly graphic, and I had to skim those pages to keep my stomach from flipping over.  The writing style is..."different", I guess, would be a good word.  Like Frank McCourt, Frey chooses not to use quotation marks (or any punctuation, at times), which can make reading difficult at times, particularly when he's describing conversations between multiple people.  Yet, although the subject matter is tough at best, it is not a difficult book to read, and it does go relatively fast.

And though I think as a memoir (real or embellished) it's well-done...I can't really understand the huge buzz around the book.  I never personally felt the "can't put it down" pull to finish it the way I do with many books that I love.  Pieces gets easier to read, the more progress James makes, and towards the end I was finding it easier and more enjoyable to read.  I can't say I ever felt the obsession that Oprah and millions of other people claimed to have over this book -- which may be the reason why I can't understand what the big deal was that James Frey embellished the truth.