Tuesday, March 20, 2007

A Million Little Pieces



I know that this is close to the eighth posting of this book, but it is a very interesting book. I heard about James Frey book called A Million Pieces from this site and I was curious as to if it would be any good. At times it is very graphic with how he describes the physical symptoms of withdraw from the drugs and alcohol. Another aspect of the book that might turn a reader off is his choice of language. At times, it can be considered crude but if that is not something that affects you then this is a good book to read. It is such a sad story once you get into it. It’s so heartbreaking to sit and read about a man that gets to the point where he’s so depressed that he’s only taking the drugs as a last ditch hope to kill himself or completely dull all of his senses. To me, it is sad that a person could ever get to that point. Despite it being sad, I find it fascinating. I just do not see how someone could get to the point where they could push everyone away, family included, and just live their life not knowing where they would be the next day if they were alive. I am not very far in the book, but that factor right there makes me want to read more. What else is interesting is all of the rules that the rehab center has. The most interesting one is that he is not allowed to say anything more than hello to any of the girl patients. I found that to be odd and I am still trying to figure out why that was a rule. I am enjoying the book so far and I am hoping it stays interesting. I encourage you all to go read it if you have the chance. The library center in town has I think close to seven copies of the book. :] What is another interesting twist to this book is the controversy it has sparked. James Frey was said by The Smoking Gun Report to have embellished some of the main facts about his book. Frey then did admit to making up some of the details, but a lot of them were the truth. I am not sure what side I believe, but I am curious to hear what you guys think. Along with your opinion about both sides of the story, here is another question: How do you guys feel about lying in print? What if the smoking gun was right and he did lie about the majority of his book? Do you think then the category of the book should have been changed?

2 comments:

Erin said...

From what I have heard about it, I thought the book was always fiction. I didn't know that it was autobiographical. But even if you do embellish a few details, I guess it could still be considered non-fiction as long as the main idea was not dramatically altered.

gobluedevils042 said...

I heard on Opra that he lied about everything on the book, but I still think that it seems to be a great story of this guy finally taming his inner beast.