http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0104061jamesfrey1.html
Interesting article - any comments?
VCNJ~
I nearly bought the book a couple of weeks ago. I wonder if it is as good a read as the article. That’s a terrific bit of journalism.
I haven’t finished reading the article, but if the snippets are indicative at all of the overall quality of writing in the book, it’s a piece of crap.
Best selling crap though.
They are. I picked up the book at the bookstore a couple weeks ago, and flipped through it. Frey couldn’t be bothered to use proper punctuation and capitalization - no quotes around dialog, and the funky random capitalization that you see in the article. I hate that kind of too-clever writing, so I didn’t buy it, and don’t plan on reading it.
I like the Smoking Gun article, though. Very interesting, and proper punctuation!
Haven’t read it, and had no desire to after it was wonderfully eviscerated a couple of years ago in this review.
Sounds like bad writing is the least of this guy’s problems.
I think this is some excellent investigative work on TSG’s part, and that this man is an idiot for posting that e-mail on his site. Based on the book excerpts, I also think he can’t write to save his life.
Shrug. He wouldn’t be the first person to make a successful living out of exaggeration, distortion of the truth and out-and-out lies. Unless this guy runs for public office or something, who really cares?
I’ve had earnest people mow me down at the bookstore where I work and insist that I stop everything, sit down and read the blasted thing right this very minute. I’m cheered by this. Really, I’ve got a big goofy grin. I may even spend the afternoon whistling.
Crazy. Take a look at the Smoking Gun article at some of the exerpts.
" As I was driving up, I saw her standing out front with a few of her friends. I was staring at her and not paying attention to the road and I drove up onto a sidewalk and hit a Cop who was standing there. I didn’t hit him hard because I was only going about five miles an hour, but I hit him. The Cop called for backup and I sat in the car and stared at her and waited. The backup came and they approached the car and asked me to get out and I said you want me out, then get me out, you fucking Pigs. They opened the door, I started swinging, and they beat my ass with billy clubs and arrested me. As they hauled me away kicking and screaming, I tried to get the crowd to attack them and free me, which didn’t happen."
Um yeah.
It reads like Napoleon Dynamite. “What did you do all last summer Napoleon?” “I spent it in Alaska hunting Wolverines!” “What kind of gun did you use?” “A frickin’ 12 guage, what do you THINK??” "How many did you shoot? " “About 50- they kept trying to attack my cousin- what the heck would YOU do in a situation like that??”
Um riiiiight…
“You want me out, then get me out you fucking pigs” OK, tough guy. I’m pretty sure it happened JUST like that. Whatever.
Are there consequences to releasing a book that you say is non fiction that actually is fiction? Backlash from the publisher or anything? I hate to think he’ll get away with this and wind up rolling in money and laughing at all the poor, gullible Oprah readers that bought his BS.
Exactly. I read this tripe from cover to cover and that was what I was thinking the entire time.
Great article.
That long article says he’s rolling in $$, that both his books may be filmed, and that he first tried to sell his story as fiction but no one would publish it.
At least Jerzy Kosinski (sp?) could write.
I wonder if we’ll see a reaction from Oprah.
It’s just a depressing commentary on the gullibility of the general public. I’ve flipped through the book and his prose is crap. The fact that he can package it and sell it as some sort of True Crime memoir is very depressing.
It’s astonishing how many of these new “edgy” memoirs are made up out of whole cloth. When Fred Exley wrote A fan’s notes he had the decency to call it fiction, though it closely approximated his life. A friend of mine “Barry” was leafing through a published memoir by a friend of his when he saw a story that the writer had lifted from Barry’s life and passed off as his own. He was unbelievably pissed.
Thanks for the article Veuve_ClicquotNJ!
Personally, I’d be amused to see the Wrath of Oprah befall this twit. THAT might make an interesting book. 
I’ve read reviews everywhere hailing this book as a must read. :dubious:
Thank god for the Dope. I’m now off to Zooba to delete it from my queu.
ok, I suck, I enjoyed it. Clearly I have no taste and am among the Oprah Sheeple. I’ve given this book out several times (I had access to lots of free copies back when I worked for Borders), and all the people I’ve given it to have also enjoyed it, aside from the part about the no-anaesthetic root canal, which they all found upsetting and yelled at me for not warning them, which I had, but I digress. Maybe I’d hate it more if I paid $35, who knows.
I didn’t find it nearly as “too-clever” as that other apparently-not-as-true-as-claimed book, the one about the guy whose parents die and he gets custody of his brother. That I-adopted-my-brother guy is a smug bastard in person as well.
I’ve been following the links on TSG’s site. Beyond the fact that the police reports support BoBettie’s suspicion, there’s also a “Dear Reader” letter from Frey in which he states why he chose to tell his story, which is, of course, the definitive story about addiction and recovery, the Only one that tells the Real Truth. This in particular really grinds my gears:
Right: the truth is just the opposite. And if he’d continued with the next eleven steps, he would realize that that truth is upheld by all [blank] Anonymous organizations. Admitting that you are powerless over your addiction is only. the first. step. The other eleven steps are about regaining that control and taking charge of your life. Like he said. Except that Whatever Anonymous does not prevent a person from doing that. They help make it possible.
I’ve heard this so many times before, and I think it says a great deal more about the person saying it than it does about the Anonymous organizations. It’s what people say after they’ve been sober or clean or whatever just long enough to think they can fly solo, but before they’ve started to develop new behavior patterns that will help them stay clean. Then, when they relapse, they can blame it on Anonymous. “They told me to give up control! Well, I did, and look what happened!”
I’ve been browsing Oprah’s message boards and The Smoking Gun links are making appearences, but being deleted as fast as they are posted. Interesting. Reminds me of my aunt that sends me glurge and admonishes me “Don’t tell me if it isn’t real- I want to believe it!”
I have no problem with the book itself- I’ll probably read it (but won’t buy it) now that I can look at it from the proper perspective. But for this guy to go around preaching about recovery and all- who knows if he even ever HAD a drug problem or not? I don’t know. I think if you make up that many stories and spin that much BS you have got to be either very stupid or crazy like a fox. I guess either way, he got what he was after- money and a name for himself. I’ll bet a million dollars that Oprah will never call him on it and will continue to flog his book as if nothing ever happened.
Correction: any post on the Oprah boards that contains a direct link to the article is deleted- dissenting opinons are allowed to stay. They have a rule about posting direct hyperlinks.