"A Million Little Pieces"

[mofish]

'Million Little Pieces' called a fraud

Best-selling Oprah selection said to contain fabrications

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/books/0 ... frey.reut/

[Martrae]

Readers offered refund for controversial memoir
Jan 11, 1:51 PM (ET)
By Mark Egan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Random House will offer a refund to readers who bought James Frey's drug and alcohol memoir "A Million Little Pieces" directly from the publisher, a move believed to be unprecedented, after the author was accused of exaggerating his story.

Readers calling Random House's customer service line to complain on Wednesday were told that if the book was bought directly from the publisher it could be returned for a full refund. Those who bought the book at a bookstore were told to try and return it to the store where it was bought.

"If the book was bought directly from us we will refund the purchase price in full," one Random House customer service told Reuters, adding that readers would have to return the book with the original invoice. "If you bought it at a book store, we ask that you return the book to the book store."

Asked why the publisher, which normally sells books directly to consumers as non-refundable, would offer refunds, the agent said, "because of the controversy surrounding it."

Several other Random House customer service agents called by Reuters reporters also agreed to pay refunds.

Frey's memoir of alcohol and drug-induced mayhem sold 1.77 million copies last year after being chosen by Oprah Winfrey's book club in September. But investigative Web site The Smoking Gun on Sunday reported the book, published by Random House's Doubleday division, was full of exaggeration and inaccuracies.

Frey, who will appear on Larry King Live to discuss the controversy for the first time, has called the accusations "the latest attempt to discredit me."

"I stand by my book, and my life, and I won't dignify this bullshit with any sort of further response," Frey wrote this week on his personal Web site, bigjimindustries.com.

Publishers Weekly Senior Editor Charlotte Abbott called the Random House refunds unprecedented, and said neither she nor her colleagues "had ever heard of something like this before."

Doubleday suggested on Tuesday it was unconcerned about the book's accuracy. "Memoir is a personal history," the publisher said in a statement. "By definition, it is highly personal.

"He represented to us that his version of events was true to his recollections," Doubleday said.

Central to Frey's book, published in 2003, is his assertion that he was charged with assaulting an Ohio police officer with his car, with inciting a riot, with possession of crack cocaine and felony drunk driving -- charges that he wrote resulted in a three-month prison term.

The Smoking Gun, owned by Court TV, reported that most of those claims were not borne out by police records or by interviews with police and court officials. The Web site published the police officer's report of the key 1992 incident which shows Frey was found drunk in his car without a driver's license but did not, as he wrote, serve time the incident or behave in the outrageous manner portrayed in his book.

Smoking Gun editor William Bastone told Reuters, "In off-the-record interviews with us, Frey admitted embellishing facts in the book for dramatic impact."

Frey has since threatened to sue The Smoking Gun.

The flap is also having repercussions in Hollywood.

The Hollywood Reporter said that a planned film of Frey's memoir could now need a rehab of its own. The controversy could keep Hollywood "A" list talent away from the project so as not to taint their careers, the paper said.

Warner Bros. is developing the project with a production company owned by actor Brad Pitt and "ER" producer John Wells.

Frey's book was published in hardcover in 2003 and then in trade paperback with the coveted Oprah's Book Club endorsement in late September. Winfrey has not commented on the controversy surrounding the book.

Frey's October appearance on Winfrey's chat show made him an overnight literary sensation and his book sold more copies in 2005 than any other non-fiction book. Only Harry Potter sold more copies. Since the controversy, "A Million Little Pieces" has remained the No. 1 selling book on Amazon.com.

Random House is owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann AG.

[Kramer]

i might call just because i am a cheap son of a gun....

It is still a powerful story folks and doesn't really matter if it is real or fiction....

[Tossica]

If I had known people wanted to read about stuff like that, I would have written my life story except mine would not be a crock of shit like this dude.

[Kramer]

do it man, that could be your angle....


Tossica's Story.... NOT a load of shiz like that Frey guy!

[Minrott]

I don't understand the appeal for this story, true or not.

[araby]

Kind of ruins it for you...

I will however, remember how moved I was when I read it, and regret for him that he didn't get it accepted as fiction, because that makes him a very good writer. I bought it.

[Kramer]

Exactly.... It doesn't matter in the end... People read books for the story. I don't give a crap what kind of person is writing it. So what if some of it is fiction, embellished, whatever. I don't want to be best friends with the dude ,I just want to read a good story....


you people can really not care this much that someone lied.

[Menlaan]

I think it makes a big difference. When you're reading nonfiction, there's more to it. You think to yourself, wow, that's hard to believe! When it's fiction, you aren't impressed as easily and require more from the story itself. Here's an analogy, if you kill a dragon with your WoW character, you're pretty excited. But, if you heard of someone killing a dragon in real life, it would rock your world . . .

Menlaan

[mojo]

when boybutter brought this up,i knew this will be fun...
the book started as no other.. you were wrapped was a easy read..
but then he dragged in the woman... then he proclaimed I will quit ALONE.

the woman was enough to alert it was a lie,,, then top it with cream of im stronger then most..

if i posted this when i first asked boybutter i woulda been probably dismissed
dont get me wrong great story till it went hollywood.
once again love the media & oprah

[Kramer]

ok, if he had killed a dragon in the recovery center and had lied about it then I would really be pissed....

[Martrae]

Frey admits fictions, Oprah apologizes
Jan 26, 12:00 PM (ET)
By Michael Conlon

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Author James Frey confessed to Oprah Winfrey on Thursday that he made up details about every character in his memoir "A Million Little Pieces" and the talk show host apologized to her viewers, saying she felt "duped."

In 19 years in television "I've never been in this position before," said Winfrey, whose praise for Frey's book in September helped make it the top-selling book on nonfiction lists in the United States last year.

"I really feel duped," Winfrey told Frey on her television show. She said he had betrayed millions of viewers.

Winfrey began by apologizing to viewers for a telephone call she made to CNN's "Larry King Live" show on January 11, while King was interviewing Frey about the controversy. In the call Winfrey said that even though the facts were being questioned, the book "still resonates with me" and called the controversy "much ado about nothing."

"I regret that phone call," she told her viewers on Thursday. "I made a mistake and I left the impression that the truth does not matter and I am deeply sorry about that. That is not what I believe."

Sitting with Frey in side-by-side easy chairs, Winfrey quizzed the author point-by-point about his book that described his drug-and-alcohol addiction and the people hurt by it.

"All the way through the book I altered details about every one of the characters," Frey said "Every one of the characters was altered," including himself.

He spent two hours in jail, not 87 days, and the account of his breaking up with a woman who later committed suicide happened in a much shorter period of time, with their separation occurring while he was taking care of personal business in North Carolina, not while he was in jail, he said.

She committed suicide by slashing her wrists, he said, not by hanging herself.

Asked if The Smoking Gun Web site which first questioned the book had accurately characterized the discrepancies, Frey said "I think most of what they wrote was pretty accurate," adding they did "a good job."

The Smoking Gun said it could find no evidence of his having spent that much time in jail and that an auto accident he wrote about consisted of running his car up on a curb.

Frey said he had developed an image of himself for the book as "being tougher than I was, badder than I was" as a "coping mechanism."

Winfrey asked if that was to make a better book or to make him a better person.

"Probably both," he answered.

"To everyone who has challenged me on this issue of truth, you are absolutely right," she said, adding that the inspiration the book brought to so many people had clouded her judgment.

Frey's book had been chosen by Winfrey for her reading club -- an honor which often turns books into best sellers. Published by Random House's Doubleday division, the book sold more than 1.77 million copies last year after being chosen by Winfrey.

On January 17 Winfrey chose Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel's "Night" as her latest selection, sending the book, first published in the United States in 1960, to the top of best-seller lists.

[Kramer]

yeah. pretty amazing how much he made of the lie.....

he should be set for life....

laughing... err.... tucking his tail.... all the way to the bank...