After the Hooey Has Settled
James Frey, author of "Million Little Pieces," has been caught with his pants -- up. He's been found out. Turns out he's not the Alcoholic, Drug Addict, or Criminal he portrays in his supposed "memoir." But that's okay, says he and Oprah. It's the message that really counts, not its contents.
I first heard about Frey's book a few months ago, when the hoopla was still in full-swing. Rather than dishing out the $14.95, I put my name on the waiting list at the local library. I think I was number 134. Couple of weeks ago, my number got called in and I eagerly checkout out "Million Little Pieces." Twenty pages into the book, (and more usages of the "f" word than I've encountered in a lifetime) I became skeptical. Something didn't sit right. So I went online and discovered a day-old article on the infamous Smoking Gun Website titled, "A Million Little Lies." Turns out they've done their homework.
Frey's past incriminates him as being just a regular guy. Not a Criminal. Certainly not a guy who could withstand a root canal without Novocain. His only "crime" - turns out - is just being too mainstream, status quo. And so began the journey of his writing memoir, which apparently needs to be moved from the nonfiction isle to the fiction at Barnes & Noble. Among other things, what is interesting about all the hoopla, is Frey's response to the Hooey Hitting the Headlines. He (finally) admits to falsifying some of his claims (translation: lying). But its the message that really counts, he whines. And Oprah backs him up, not surprisingly. Once you've endorsed and gushed to millions of viewers, it's tough to backtrack and say you were (gasp) Wrong.
It's too bad James Frey found it so easy to confess to crimes he never committed; his book is riddled with comments about his guilt, his shame, and that he alone is responsible for the mess of his life. I wonder why he can't admit to lying. That the shame of literary deception doesn't produce any measure of humility and repentance. I hope after some of the Headline Hooey settles down, that James Frey will realize that true confessions are what truly matter and that a lie, by any other name (Ie: "essential reality") is still just that. A lie.
Links:
The Seattle Times - "In Frey's world, hooey happens" by Ellen Goodman
The Smoking Gun - "A Million Little Lies"
Hi - I liked your commentary.
Thanks for the great post - poor James. He's probably knee deep in a
million little lawsuits now.
