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Books : A Million Little Pieces |
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List Price: $15.95Amazon.com's Price: $10.85 You Save: $5.10 (32%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.29092
EAN: 9780307276902
ISBN: 0307276902
Label: Anchor
Manufacturer: Anchor
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 448
Publication Date: September 22, 2005
Publisher: Anchor
Release Date: September 22, 2005
Sales Rank: 4571
Studio: Anchor
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
“The most lacerating tale of drug addiction since William S. Burroughs’ Junky.” —The Boston Globe
“Again and again, the book delivers recollections that leave the reader winded and unsteady. James Frey’s staggering recovery memoir could well be seen as the final word on the topic.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“A brutal, beautifully written memoir.”—The Denver Post
“Gripping . . . A great story . . . You can’t help but cheer his victory.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review
Amazon.com Review:
News from Doubleday & Anchor Books
The controversy over James Frey's A Million Little Pieces has caused serious concern at Doubleday and Anchor Books. Recent interpretations of our previous statement notwithstanding, it is not the policy or stance of this company that it doesn’t matter whether a book sold as nonfiction is true. A nonfiction book should adhere to the facts as the author knows them.
It is, however, Doubleday and Anchor's policy to stand with our authors when accusations are initially leveled against their work, and we continue to believe this is right and proper. A publisher's relationship with an author is based to an extent on trust. Mr. Frey's repeated representations of the book's accuracy, throughout publication and promotion, assured us that everything in it was true to his recollections. When the Smoking Gun report appeared, our first response, given that we were still learning the facts of the matter, was to support our author. Since then, we have questioned him about the allegations and have sadly come to the realization that a number of facts have been altered and incidents embellished.
We bear a responsibility for what we publish, and apologize to the reading public for any unintentional confusion surrounding the publication of A Million Little Pieces. We are immediately taking the following actions:
We are issuing a publisher's note to be included in all future printings of the book.* James Frey has written an author's note that will appear in all future printings of the book.* Read the author's note. The jacket for all future editions will carry the line 'With new notes from the publisher and from the author.'
*Customers should find the Author's Note and Publisher's Note in copies purchased from Amazon.com after April 15, 2006.
Note: The following editorial reviews were written before the recent revelations by James Frey and the publisher.
Amazon.com
The electrifying opening of James Frey's debut memoir, A Million Little Pieces, smash-cuts to the then 23-year-old author on a Chicago-bound plane 'covered with a colorful mixture of spit, snot, urine, vomit and blood.' Wanted by authorities in three states, without ID or any money, his face mangled and missing four front teeth, Frey is on a steep descent from a dark marathon of drug abuse. His stunned family checks him into a famed Minnesota drug treatment center where a doctor promises 'he will be dead within a few days' if he starts to use again, and where Frey spends two agonizing months of detox confronting 'The Fury' head on:
I want a drink. I want fifty drinks. I want a bottle of the purest, strongest, most destructive, most poisonous alcohol on Earth. I want fifty bottles of it. I want crack, dirty and yellow and filled with formaldehyde. I want a pile of powder meth, five hundred hits of acid, a garbage bag filled with mushrooms, a tube of glue bigger than a truck, a pool of gas large enough to drown in. I want something anything whatever however as much as I can.
One of the more harrowing sections is when Frey submits to major dental surgery without the benefit of anesthesia or painkillers (he fights the mind-blowing waves of 'bayonet' pain by digging his fingers into two old tennis balls until his nails crack). His fellow patients include a damaged crack addict with whom Frey wades into an ill-fated relationship, a federal judge, a former championship boxer, and a mobster (who, upon his release, throws a hilarious surf-and-turf bacchanal, complete with pay-per-view boxing). In the book's epilogue, when Frey ticks off a terse update on everyone, you can almost hear the Jim Carroll Band's brutal survivor's lament 'People Who Died' kicking in on the soundtrack of the inevitable film adaptation.
The rage-fueled memoir is kept in check by Frey's cool, minimalist style. Like his steady mantra, 'I am an Alcoholic and I am a drug Addict and I am a Criminal,' Frey's use of repetition takes on a crisp, lyrical quality which lends itself to the surreal experience. The book could have benefited from being a bit leaner. Nearly 400 pages is a long time to spend under Frey's influence, and the stylistic acrobatics (no quotation marks, random capitalization, left-aligned text, wild paragraph breaks) may seem too self-conscious for some readers, but beyond the literary fireworks lurks a fierce debut. --Brad Thomas Parsons
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - The underlying story behind A million little pieces
Before buying the book I was well aware of the community's outburst on his over exaggeration and how it brings those who go through rehab to shame yet despite all this, I still found the book quite an enjoyable read. Having said that, the main reasons I really enjoyed this book is becuase it is of my first reads into the worlds of rehab and memoirs of alcoholism which is why i probably feel that perhaps his exaggeration was intentional for readers to understand his perception that addiction is of ... Read More
Rating:  - Fiction Or Not, It's A Great Read!
I really enjoyed this book even with all the controversy surrounding it. It really does have a little bit of everything in it and it was one I couldn't put down. I would highly recommend it, especially for anyone who has either been through treatment or been close to someone who has.
Rating:  - One of the Worst Books I've Ever Read
I've never been an alcoholic or a drug addict, so perhaps I don't have the background to really understand this book, but I found it to be boring, horribly written (the nonstop repetition was ridiculous-we get it, you're a criminal) and downright irresponsible. Its one saving grace was that it was a "brutally honest memoir" but hmmm...turns out he lied about, basically...everything, folks! And yes, it matters. When he writes a memoir of being in rehab where he gives counselors constant attitude, breaks ... Read More
Rating: - When the book got to the mafia guy
I picked up this book with some interest. From the opening paragraph, I sensed this is BS. I mean you're covered vomit and blood with serious head injuries and a plane lets you on?!?!? Come on! This is right up there with Hillary Clinton running under sniper fire.
But what really set me over the edge was when Frey started in with his cliched mafia character.
Frey's problem is that rehab is not at all a very interesting place.
Rating:  - Unbelievable and bad, or unbelievably bad
I can't believe anyone ever believed this story could be true. The characters are unbelievable, two-dimensional, and unlikeable. The protagonist is sanctimonious and substance-less, nothing like any real addict I know. Emotional breakthroughs come as if a switch has been turned, and within minutes and with no real introspection. And the writing is repetitive, unoriginal, and annoying. Writing the same sentence over and over and then adding the f-word to the same sentence is something that a 15-year ... Read More
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