When I was home sick last week, I ended up watching Oprah one afternoon. Hey, it wasn’t time for the news, and my latest Girls Gone Wild DVD hadn’t come in the mail yet…so what was I supposed to do??
Oprah’s guest (it was a rerun of a 10.26.05 broadcast) was an author I’d never heard of, one James Frey, who had written a book called A Million Little Pieces, which chronicled his “vomit-caked years as an alcoholic, drug addict, and criminal”. Apparently, Oprah had been absolutely captivated by the book, making it the latest selection to her book club. Everyone at her company, Harpo Productions, was devouring the book, and stories abounded about the people moved and the lives changed by Frey’s book. It was a tremendously moving and inspiring show, especially when you consider the parade of people on the show who testified to how the book had changed their lives.
Frey’s story was something straight out of hell, and that he has been able to put his life back together is in and of itself an inspiring story, except for one little thing…Frey’s story and his book may not be true, and at the very least Frey may well be guilty of a fair amount of embellishment.
Oprah Winfrey’s been had….
In an October 26 show entitled “The Man Who Kept Oprah Awake At Night,” Winfrey hailed Frey’s graphic and coarse book as “like nothing you’ve ever read before. Everybody at Harpo is reading it. When we were staying up late at night reading it, we’d come in the next morning saying, ‘What page are you on?’” In emotional filmed testimonials, employees of Winfrey’s Harpo Productions lauded the book as revelatory, with some choking back tears. When the camera then returned to a damp-eyed Winfrey, she said, “I’m crying ‘cause these are all my Harpo family so, and we all loved the book so much.”
But a six-week investigation by The Smoking Gun reveals that there may be a lot less to love about Frey’s runaway hit, which has sold more than 3.5 million copies and, thanks to Winfrey, has sat atop The New York Times nonfiction paperback best seller list for the past 15 weeks. Next to the latest Harry Potter title, Nielsen BookScan reported Friday, Frey’s book sold more copies in the U.S. in 2005—1.77 million—than any other title, with the majority of that total coming after Winfrey’s selection.
Police reports, court records, interviews with law enforcement personnel, and other sources have put the lie to many key sections of Frey’s book. The 36-year-old author, these documents and interviews show, wholly fabricated or wildly embellished details of his purported criminal career, jail terms, and status as an outlaw “wanted in three states.”
In additon to these rap sheet creations, Frey also invented a role for himself in a deadly train accident that cost the lives of two female high school students. In what may be his book’s most crass flight from reality, Frey remarkably appropriates and manipulates details of the incident so he can falsely portray himself as the tragedy’s third victim. It’s a cynical and offensive ploy that has left one of the victims’ parents bewildered. “As far as I know, he had nothing to do with the accident,” said the mother of one of the dead girls. “I figured he was taking license…he’s a writer, you know, they don’t tell everything that’s factual and true.”
Judging by the reaction to Frey’s book, it would seem that one certainly could not argue with the impact it’s had. And since I’ve yet to hear Frey’s side of the story regarding these accusations, I’m going to withhold judgement. Here’s my question, though: Does (and/or should) the possibility that Frey’s book may be largely fiction minimize it’s importance? Does a potential lack of honesty on the part of an author render his work less significant? I’m not certain that I can answer that myself, but what does concern me is that Frey has presented his story and his book as the literal truth on the one hand and complete fiction on the other. Writers mix fiction and truth all the time- it’s called “literary license”. The problems begin when an author forgets to mention that he’s embellished the historical facts in the interest of telling a more compelling and interesting story.
Has Oprah been “had”?
Frey told Cleveland’s Plain Dealer in a May 2003 interview that the book was straight nonfiction, claiming that his publisher, Doubleday, “contacted the people I wrote about in the book. All the events depicted in the book checked out as factually accurate. I changed people’s names. I do believe in the anonymity part of AA. The only things I changed were aspects of people that might reveal their identity. Otherwise, it’s all true.” However, the book, which has been printed scores of times worldwide, has never carried a disclaimer acknowledging those name changes (or any other fictionalization). Frey told us that his publisher “felt comfortable running it” without a disclaimer and that he “didn’t ask or not ask” for one. “I didn’t frankly even think about it.”
In subsequent book store appearances (Frey can draw 1000+ fans and celebrity worshipers like Lindsay Lohan) and interviews, he has repeated the claim that “A Million Little Pieces” is truthful. And he has never shied away from discussing his criminal past.
It’s a literary work; does the author have an implied obligation to inform his audience that the book is not strictly and completely factually and historically accurate? Or should he just go along for the ride wherever it might take him? And does the fact that Frey may have been less than honest with his readers and fans mitigate the good that his book may have done? I haven’t read the book myself, so I’m going to withhold judgement…but it does make me wonder.
It would seem at the very least that Frey may perhaps have gone along with whatever story created the most buzz for his book. It’s also quite possible that whoever recommended to book to Oprah Winfrey may not have done their homework. Whatever, it seems that there are a lot more questions for Frey, and for Winfrey, than there are answers. At the very least, someone’s got a black eye…I’m just not certain who.
