# "A Million Little"...Lies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 9, 2006, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137 "2006-01-09T11:35:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137/21 "2006-01-10T16:01:02Z")
For anyone interested, I started a Great Debate (maybe it should have an an IMHO, but it’s a tough call) about this: > **[Calling a fictional book non-fiction. Does it matter?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=353434)** > > I’ve been interested in the recent saga of James Frey and wondered about the ethics and consequences of writing a book and saying it’s 100% true, then having someone point out that key parts of it are not only inaccurate, but made up whole from the... ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137/22 "2006-01-10T16:07:41Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > That long article says he’s rolling in $$, that both his books may be filmed… With Jon Lovitz (in his Tommy Flanagan the Pathological Liar persona) starring? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137/23 "2006-01-10T16:14:52Z")
Actually, I enjoyed both his books tremendously. The lack of punctuation, etc. didn’t bother me, and I found the style generally likable, even reminiscent of Burroughs at times. But I enjoyed TSG article all the same. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137/24 "2006-01-10T19:02:32Z")
> [@BoBettie](#): > > It reads like Napoleon Dynamite. Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh. ---
**Author:** ![Nickrz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbce88/32.png) [@Nickrz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nickrz)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137/25 "2006-01-10T20:03:00Z")
I think this is all funny as hell. It just proves once again that Oprah has the intellectual throw-weight of a badminton shuttlecock. The she-devil anti-christ of individual thinking has now foisted and promoted (at least) two frauds on the popular culture: this craven Frey schmuckatelli, and the oily, unctuous, public-humiliation specialist Dr. Phil. Oh yea of little faith and puny brain, let thy eternity in hell be spent with Rush Limbaugh chattering in one ear and Oprah cackling in t’other. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137/26 "2006-01-10T20:25:46Z")
> [@Nickrz](#): > > I think this is all funny as hell. It just proves once again that Oprah has the intellectual throw-weight of a badminton shuttlecock. The she-devil anti-christ of individual thinking has now foisted and promoted (at least) two frauds on the popular culture: this craven Frey schmuckatelli, and the oily, unctuous, public-humiliation specialist Dr. Phil. She’s also the one who got gazillions of suburban housewives reading “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and “Anna Karenina.” Have you ever watched Oprah? I agree, Dr. Phil is the antichrist and launching him is a big negative on the Oprah scoreboard, but from my standpoint, the good things she does outweighs even Dr. Phil. I’m hoping she addresses the Frey issue at some point. It’d be neat to see her go after him. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137/27 "2006-01-10T20:58:23Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > She’s also the one who got gazillions of suburban housewives reading “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and “Anna Karenina.” To be fair, she got gazillions of suburban housewives to _buy_ the books. Who knows how many finished reading them. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137/28 "2006-01-11T05:32:46Z")
> [@BoBettie](#): > > 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 wonder if maybe even his addiction didn’t run terribly deep. Might be that he had a few nights partying, culminating in the episode of falling down the fire escape and having his teeth knocked out. Then maybe that led to his parents insisting on rehab, which was so embarrassing to him, that’s when he started spinning the tales about looking death in the face and saying “Bring it on!” He might also have been, in reality, quite intimidated by the hardcases he met at Hazelden, which further inspired him to pretend he’d bonded with them instead. It’s a hard thing to admit that you’re a hardcore addict, but in a way, it’s also hard to admit that you’re a lightweight who bottomed out easily. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137/29 "2006-01-11T08:20:35Z")
Years ago I posted a query somewhere on this board (?since disappeared) and a few others asking doctors whether there was any reason Frey wouldn’t have received local anesthetic at the dentist. The general reply was nope. I asked a colleague at Hazelden whether they forbid anesthetic for their patients. She rolled her eyes and said, “Been reading Frey’s book? No. That’s not true.” As to the writing I had a meh response, but that usually doesn’t stop me fro finishing a book and enjoying it for what it is. It does bother me that he represented this as truth rather than fiction. It does bother me that the big revelation that was apparently intended to explain and justify everything was that a man made a move on him. I don’t care if he defended himself from an assault, but it all raises questions of flaming homophobia for me. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137/30 "2006-01-11T09:50:18Z")
How remarkable, the Real Media bought his story hook, line and sinker. It took the Smoking Gun to determine it was a big lie. Further, it looks like it took them most of an afternoon to determine it was a big lie. I suspect that the Real Media more and more are fighting a rear-guard action. They are under pressure to publish, they are under pressure to reduce costs. They seem to get it wrong more and more. The New Media is not ‘there’ yet, but you can see they are improving. As another poster said, a remarkable piece of journalism. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137/31 "2006-01-11T10:30:13Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > I wonder if maybe even his addiction didn’t run terribly deep. Might be that he had a few nights partying, culminating in the episode of falling down the fire escape and having his teeth knocked out. Then maybe that led to his parents insisting on rehab, which was so embarrassing to him, that’s when he started spinning the tales about looking death in the face and saying “Bring it on!” He might also have been, in reality, quite intimidated by the hardcases he met at Hazelden, which further inspired him to pretend he’d bonded with them instead. It’s a hard thing to admit that you’re a hardcore addict, but in a way, it’s also hard to admit that you’re a lightweight who bottomed out easily. That is an interesting theory. Years ago when I was working with addicts we had a couple of notable clients who were very similar in lots of ways. Both came from wealthy families and never had to resort to crime to feed their habits. Both were helped time and time again by their parents. Both were voluntary admissions apparently under threat of losing access to mum and dad’s money. Both had puny drug habits (using less heroin than many functioning social users) however both attempted to act the hardass in an apparent attempt to impress the other clients and staff. Kind of a well I failed at everything else but look how well I fucked up kind of thing. So, not having read the book, it does seem from the TSG article that you could be right. It seems strange that he could be a hard case heavy drug user without having to resort to the usual crimes needed to fuel a habit. And no addict doing that for long stays out of the hands of the police. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137/32 "2006-01-12T03:04:06Z")
Oprah is now defending Frey on Larry King. She says she doesn’t care if he’s a liar, she still loves it for the glurge. ::puke smiley:: ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137/33 "2006-01-12T05:32:40Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > How remarkable, the Real Media bought his story hook, line and sinker. It took the Smoking Gun to determine it was a big lie. You mean The Smoking Gun, the wholly owned subsidiary of Court TV, the cable channel owned primarily by Time Warner? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137/34 "2006-01-12T06:11:53Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Oprah is now defending Frey on Larry King. She says she doesn’t care if he’s a liar, she still loves it for the glurge. ::puke smiley:: She actually used the word “glurge”? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137/35 "2006-01-12T06:26:36Z")
Oprah [talks](http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/books/01/11/frey.lkl/) about Frey’s book on _Larry King Live_, January 11. > [@](#): > > I am disappointed by this controversy surrounding _A Million Little Pieces_, because I rely on the publishers to define the category that a book falls within, and also the authenticity of the work. But the underlying message of redemption in James Frey’s memoir still resonates with me, and I know it resonates with millions of other people who have read this book. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137/36 "2006-01-12T06:27:23Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > She actually used the word “glurge”? Naw. [She said “But the underlying message of redemption in James Frey’s memoir still resonates with me,” and “To me, it seems to be much ado about nothing.”](http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/books/01/11/frey.lkl/index.html) In essence, yeah, the tune is “stand by your glurge.” You’ve got to love Frey’s statement, though. He says “In every case, I did the best I could to recreate my life according to my memory of it.” He misremembered three months in jail and 14 arrests? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137/37 "2006-01-12T08:57:05Z")
I haven’t been this shocked since I found out that Jayson Blair hadn’t really interviewed Jessica Lynch and Janet Cooke really didn’t know a little boy named Jimmy and Rigoberta Menchú’s family wasn’t really killed by the government and Stephen Glass didn’t really know any computer hackers and Whitley Streiber hadn’t really been abducted by aliens and Jennifer Toth didn’t really crawl around under New York City and Asa Earl Carter wasn’t really a Cherokee and Carlos Castaneda wasn’t really hanging out with Mexican sorcerers. I’m almost starting to get cynical. ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137/38 "2006-01-12T12:11:56Z")
No, **Little Nemo** , no! Say it ain’t so! At least I can stay here, safe in my belief that [Marlo Morgan](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060926317/002-2080072-7714416) really _was_ taken on an Aborigineal walkabout, and that [James Redfield](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446671002/002-2080072-7714416) truly _did_ find an ancient Peruvian manuscript… ---
**Author:** ![marymargaret](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@marymargaret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marymargaret)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137/39 "2006-01-12T12:55:55Z")
Doubleday is offering a full refund, so there must be some truth to it. ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137/40 "2006-01-12T13:07:34Z")
I don’t get the controversy. This guy shpped the book around to several publishers and went through several re-writes. He submitted it as fiction to some and non-fiction to others. I read both his books, while and found them hard to believe in spots, I thought they were quite powerful (AMP more so than MFL) and memorable. I recall thinking “how can a guy recall this detail when he was so wasted” and “how can a guy recall all this dialog 10 years later” when I was reading this, so anyone who bought into it verbatim is, IMHO somewhat gullible. However, I agree that changing a few details to either make the story more or less sensational in places does not change the focus or impact of the book. I thought Frey spoke well and consistently last night, and appeared genuinely shaken by all of this… I can’t stand Oprah and her book club, but was glad she stood by her pick and dismissed this quasi-controversy last night. The funniest and most telling part of the whole interview was that Larry King obviously had not read the book, which I suspect of the majority of those incensed by TSG’s article. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-million-little-lies/339137.md?page=3)