A Million Little Pieces By James Frey

A Million Little Orders.

Right now, this is the book everyone is asking about at the bookstore. (And no, we don’t have them in stock anymore, and no, neither do the other bookstores in your town). (But we can put you on a list to get one). Most of the mass of people who want this book simply seem to want it because Oprah mentioned it, and then had the author on her show. More than once in the past two weeks, I believe.

Now, I read this book some months ago, and I have to agree that is really is a great book. Its interesting, its scary, its something that actually happened to the author. However, it sort of bothers me that people aren’t reading it because of its attributes, but only because Oprah is saying its good. It is very strange to have several housewife looking women, (accompanied by their toddlers), and several grandmothers, and at the same time, several college students, (both men and women), suddenly have this burning desire to read a book about a guy’s experiences as he went through rehabilitation for drug addiction. Oprah definately has the magic touch when it comes to booksales.

A Million Little Pieces is a good read though. James Frey wakes up one day, broken and bleeding, in an airplane he has no recollection of ever getting into. He was on his way to rehab, to deal with his drug and alcohol addiction, and also all the emotional baggage that comes with that sort of life. He wrote about everything his body went through, in graphic detail, as he battled for his life. Its not pretty. He also had to have several teeth worked on and removed, and, because he was a drug addict, could not recieve any pain medication at all for the whole ordeal. This is also explained in graphic detail. I am convinced that James Frey is braver than I will ever be. I am not convinced, however, that this is the sort of book Oprah’s audience would ever pick up and read on their own, if Oprah didn’t say to read it. Perhaps thats really the point of the Oprah book club thing? Im not sure.

The book is written with little punctuation, and almost no paragraphs or chapter structure. It is perfect for the subject matter, since its about when he was struggling to put his life back together. At the same time, it does make the book a little difficult to actually read, at least at first. But I liked it anyway. I think most people will like this book too, if they know what they are getting into first. I can’t help but wonder if the people I see every day this week at the bookstore asking me “Do you have this book? It was on Oprah….” really know what they are about to read. Not a book for the Nicholas Sparks crowd.

There is a sequel to this book. Its called My Friend Leonard . Leonard is someone the author, James Frey, met in rehab, and he appears in the first book, A Million Little Pieces. Something to keep in mind to read later, after you finally get your hands on a copy of A Million Little Pieces . (And no, I didn’t keep the copy I read, so no, I can’t lend it to you).

1 Comment so far
Leave a comment




Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Name

E-mail

URI

Your Comment

Anti-spam word: (Required)*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture. Click on the picture to hear an audio file of the word.

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail