I've been putting this post off for way too long. I apologize for that. But it is certainly a topic that all of our readers should be aware of. It is about a controversy surrounding a man named James Frey and his book.

A Million Little Pieces came out in hardcover in 2003. It is the story (remember that word) of Frey's addiction to drugs and alcohol, his agonizing recovery in a Minnesota drug treatment center, and finally, his salvation. The book details, in graphic, gory detail, many horrific episodes in Frey's life. His strength and courage to beat his addiction down (in the face of terrible odds) touched many readers. One of those readers was Oprah.

Oprah Winfrey has a book club, maybe you've heard of it? Whenever she recommends a book to the world, the world reads that book. When she recommended Frey's A Million Little Pieces, it got the attention of millions of previously untapped readers. Everyone was shocked by Frey's life story. It was amazing. At one point in the book, Frey wrote that because of his drug addiction, he had to endure a root canal without novacaine. Readers squirmed and suffered along with the author. The connection was unbreakable. This man was an inspiration. His memoir was unbelievable. In fact, maybe it was too unbelievable.

January 8, 2006

A website called "The Smoking Gun" posts an article revealing many holes they have found in A Million Little Pieces. They asked questions that others had yet to ask. Through their digging, they found discrepencies in his tale. The article set off a firestorm in the world of publishing unlike any we have ever seen. And the questions about Frey's reality kept piling up.

How much of his story was actually true? How much had he invented? What was considered OK to embellish? Was anything? The very question of the word "Memoir" was being challenged. How was it different than "Non-Fiction"? And should it be?

January 11, 2006

James Frey goes on CNN's Larry King Live with his mother to explain a few things.

JAMES FREY, AUTHOR OF A MILLION LITTLE PIECES: My side is I wrote a memoir. I never expected the book to come under the type of scrutiny that it has. A memoir literally means my story, a memoir is a subjective retelling of events.

LARRY KING: But it is supposed to be factual events. The memoir is a form of biography.

FREY: Yes. Memoir is within the genre of non-fiction. I don't think it's necessarily appropriate to say I've conned anyone. The book is 432 pages long. The total page count of disputed events is 18, which is less than five percent of the total book. You know, that falls comfortably within the realm of what's appropriate for a memoir.

KING: James, with the kind of incredible life you've had, why embellish anything?

FREY: I mean, I've acknowledged that there were embellishments in the book, that I've changed things, that in certain cases things were toned up, in certain cases things were toned down, that names were changed, that identifying characteristics were changed.

There's a great debate about memoir and about what should be most properly served ... Memoirs don't generally come under the type of scrutiny that mine has.

Frey seemed somewhat nervous on Larry King, but he had the support of his mother:

KING: What's your reaction, Lynne, to this whole fraud story?

LYNNE FREY (James Frey's mother): The fraud story is very sad for us. So many people stand behind us, our friends, James' friends, disappointed that it happened. I don't believe it. I believe in James...

and he had the support of Oprah who called in to the show:

Oprah Winfrey: So, I'm just like everybody else. I go to the bookstore. I pick out a book I love. If it says memoir, I know that -- that maybe the names and dates and the times have been compressed, because that's what a memoir is.

And I feel about A Million Little Pieces that although some of the facts have been questioned -- and people have a right to question, because we live in a country that lets you do that, that the underlying message of redemption in James Frey's memoir still resonates with me. And I know that it resonates with millions of other people who have read this book and will continue to read this book.

Well, if Oprah can forgive him, I suppose the rest of us can.

January 26, 2006

Oprah has James Frey on her show. She now feels that she has been deceived by the author; that all his readers have. She challenges the details of his book and tells him she is embarrassed by the whole thing.

Frey admits to embellishing some parts of his book. For example, the root canal without novocaine didn't exactly happen. Nor did the fact that he spent 87 days in jail. It was actually closer to 2 hours.

The interview was hard to watch. Frey seemed to be squirming in his chair as much as his readers had when they had read (what they thought was) his life story.

February 1, 2006 (Today)

So where do we go from here? Should publishers be more careful with what they sell as "memoir"? Should the word be redefined to include definitions of gross embellishment? I honestly don't know. Writing about the whole thing doesn't help much either. Because of the scandal, A Million Little Pieces will inevitably get even more readers than ever. People want to know what all the fuss is about. Well, in my humble opinion, it is an important fuss--one that we should continue to debate. But while we are shooting our opinions back and forth about what this one, little book has done to our literary world, we cannot forget about all the other great books out there. The world is full of them.