A Million Little Pieces

A Million Little Pieces
By James Frey
Fiction
Released April 15, 2003
$15.95 or $9.99 Kindle www.amazon.com

This novel is based on James Frey's battle with alcohol and crack-cocaine. Drinking since the age of 13, a crack addict at 20 years old, Frey was headed to rehab at 23. He finds himself en route to a rehab facility with a broken mind, broken body, broken spirit, and no front teeth. This is the story of his six-week stay in a rehab facility.
Once there, Frey befriends quite a motley crew of characters. Hank, the bus driver, Lilly, his rehab romance and Leonard. Leonard is a mafia type guy who looks scary as hell but throws Frey a lifeline of friendship that literally gives James the strength to fight for sobriety. You can learn more about Leonard in Frey's second book.
Through Frey's eyes I learned that rehab is painful; mentally and physically. There's lots of blood, piss and vomit but even in the puddles I found myself rooting for James.
Of course, I can't talk about "A Million Little Pieces" without addressing the "Oprah" debacle but before I get to that I will say I really liked this book. James Frey is the ultimate underdog surrounded by others at the very rock bottom. I just wanted to step into the pages and help lift all of them up. I began to root for every single character.
When James Frey finds the  "Book of Tao" it becomes his safety blanket. I was so moved by the featured quotes from "Tao" that I got the book (very inspirational).
I discovered "A Million Little Pieces" because it was on the "Oprah's Book Club of the Month". When Oprah chose the book, it blew up and everyone was talking about it. James Frey became an overnight sensation and "A Million Little Pieces" a bestseller.
Then a few months later Oprah outs him for fraud and publicly humiliates him during an interview on her show. The book was published and marketed as a memoir (non-fiction). In truth, the basics were correct but Frey had taken liberties with the details and expanded on some of the events in the book. He admitted to Oprah that some things had been embellished. I watched that interview and it did not change my opinion of the book. I actually banned the "Oprah Show" from my house for awhile. I feel like she played God with Frey's career. She basically made this man a literary sensation and then in an matter of minutes on national TV she destroyed it.
The bottom line though isn't Oprah or even James Frey's legitimacy as a writer. This is the story of addiction and the path from there to sobriety. The main idea that pulses through the novel is "Will he recover or will he relapse?" Read it to find out.

Read it: Yes.
But: It's got really disgusting parts. Rehab ain't pretty.