Oprah to author: ‘You conned us all’
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) — Author James Frey on Thursday admitted he lied and embellished events about himself and other characters in his best-selling book about substance abuse and recovery.
Man, it must SUCK to be James Frey these days. Talk about a rags-to-riches-and-back-to-rags story. One day Oprah Winfrey has given you her stamp of approval, your book shoots to the top of the best-seller list, and you are on top of the world. Then…WHOOPS!… The Smoking Gun decides to do a little digging, during which they discover that your “memoir” plays rather fast and loose with the truth, maling “A Million Little Pieces” a “memoir” in name only..
Just like that, you going from being “The Next Big Thing” to be humiliated on Oprah as a liar who manipulated his readers with what was presented as Frey real-life journey in his battle against drug abuse. Wow…dog food to caviar to dog food in almost nothing flat. AND a public rebuke from Oprah her own self. Not bad….
“I made a mistake,” he told Oprah Winfrey during Thursday’s show. “I made a lot of mistakes in writing the book and promoting the book.”
Pressed if he lied or made a mistake, Frey acknowledged more.
“I think probably both,” he said.
Winfrey, whose endorsement of “A Million Little Pieces” turned into it into one of the top-selling books of 2005, retracted her support of the author, saying she felt “conned” by him. “It’s embarrassing and disappointing for me,” she said.
And even while Frey admitted altering information that he presented as facts, he maintained his book is a memoir.
“I don’t think it’s a novel. I still think it’s a memoir,” he said. “I don’t feel like I conned you. I still think the book is about drug addiction and alcoholism and no one is disputing that I was a drug addict and an alcoholic, and it’s about the battle to overcome that.”
True ‘dat. From all indications, “A Million Little Pieces” is a brilliantly written and profoundly moving story. No one is disputing Frey’s skills as a writer. The issue here is whether or not Frey has crossed the line that separates “novel” from “memoir” while promoting his book as a true reflection of his struggle against drug abuse.
Many thousands of people were moved by Frey’s book. Are those thousands now justified in feeling betrayed and duped? I cannot speak to that myself. I’ve not read “A Milliiion Little Pieces”, and I’ve no plans to do so. I’ll leave the pontificating to others who have read the book and/or actually care about what Oprah Winfrey has to say.
Among the facts he admitted to embellishing: he was jailed for only a few hours, not 87 days; and each character in the book wasn’t wholly represented.
“Every one of the people in the book existed. I altered things about all of them,” he said.
“And you altered things about yourself,” Winfrey said.
She pressed: “Why would you lie about the time you spent in jail?”
“I think part of what happened with a number of the things in the book, is when you go through an experience like the one I went through you develop different coping mechanisms. I think one of the coping mechanisms I developed was this image of myself that was greater than what I was,” he said.
Translation: I lied, because I didn’t think that my story would be terribly interesting or compelling on it’s own merits. Because of this sense of personal inadequacy, I employed a good deal of literary license to sex things up. But I’m not a liar….
I grew up being taught that “cheaters never prosper”. What I was not taught was the corollary that I learned through my own experience: “….unless you’re a Republican politician, in which case cheating is the way to prosperity.” I know nothing of Frey’s politics, and I care even less. I’m just glad that for once, our society has demonstrated that cheaters really DON’T prosper. Sure, this is an isolated incident that is apropos of nothing, but I’ll take my validation where I can find it, capice??
Gentleman, start your lawyers…..
