A Million Little Pieces

This book came to the attention of the nation through Oprah, who thought it was fabulous. However, when she discovered that parts of this memoir were fictional, she had a fit, brought the author back onto the show, and read him the riot act. I thought that it was an amazing first book, WAY out there, a report back from the depths of drug addiction. I assumed that some of it was invented, only because it was so wildly fantastic at times. The reader needs to be prepared for a painful and overwhelming experience.

I read this book years after the whole “true story” scandal came out, and when I bought it from a used bookstore, my people kind of gave me a look like, “You know that's fake, right?” Other friends of mine read the book before the scandal, and resented Frey afterwards for misrepresenting his story as true. Let me preface this by saying that I was intrigued by the ire readers expressed in finding out the story they read was fiction. Personally and ethically, I do think it was wrong of Frey to say this was a true story when it wasn't. I read this after the scandal - who knows how I would feel finding out the memoir I just read was fake...? So going into it, knowing everything I know, here are my thoughts:

I COULDN'T PUT THE BOOK DOWN!! Okay so yes, the weight of what happened to Frey has been taken out of the book because of it being a fictionalized account, but looking at it from a story's perspective, taking out all the scandal, I really liked this book. I jumped in feet-first and drank it up until the end. I enjoyed his writing style - not what I would normally go for - and it worked very well in telling this tale. I have two other Frey titles on my bookshelf, waiting patiently for me to pick them up.