Name: A Million Little Pieces
Rating: 3.566225165562914 (151 reviews)
ISBN: 9781444730029

James Frey

Published for the first time in flipback - the new, portable, stylish format that's taken Europe by storm.

A Million Little Pieces

A memoir of drug and alcohol abuse and the rehabilitation experience examines addiction and recovery through the eyes of a man who had taken his addictions to deadly extremes, describing the battle to confront the consequences of his life.

A friend of mine recommended this because when it came out she said she couldn't put it down. I decided to read her copy just for fun because I learned about the big scandal associated with this book from the early 2000s. Not the most interesting read because the writing style just felt like reading a screen play, but it did give me exposure to an early 2000s bit of pop culture with the Oprah interviews, the South Park episode, and all the energy and discussions that came from this scandal. It made me really introspective about the ethics of writing a memoir that I had never thought about before. Sure memoirs may not be entirely factual since it's a person's own recollection of events. It was really interesting to pick apart the book and what events were falsified because it spoke a lot about how the author viewed himself (or wanted to view himself). And as a recovering drug abuser the author himself mentions how being a liar came with his struggle with addiction. So overall this book wasn't honest, but it was really honest to the author's character as a liar. His emotional truth in his memoir is he changes the details of his life to victimize himself and make himself appear more heroic. These are human things to do so overall not mad about it. Cool read if you want to deep dive a bit of early 2000s lore. 

Sam Good

Patrick Book

** spoiler alert **
           It is kind of crazy that anyone actually believed this was a real, true story. It reads like a screenplay, what with the self-aggrandizing protagonist who plays by his own rules and defeats a seemingly overpowering addiction just because that's how much stronger and smarter he is than anyone else. And the lack of punctuation and random noun capitalization is infuriating. I almost couldn't read the text.

John Manoogian III

obviously the dude exaggerates, but that doesn't diminish the story.

James Frey wakes up on a plane, with no memory of the preceding two weeks. His face is cut and his body is covered with bruises. He has no wallet and no idea of his destination. He has abused alcohol and every drug he can lay his hands on for a decade - and he is aged only twenty-three. What happens next is one of the most powerful and extreme stories ever told. His family takes him to a rehabilitation centre. And James Frey starts his perilous journey back to the world of the drug and alcohol-free living. His lack of self-pity is unflinching and searing. A Million Little Pieces is a dazzling account of a life destroyed and a life reconstructed. It is also the introduction of a bold and talented literary voice.

Sara Hakkoum

It drew me in from the first few pages. When I first heard about it, I went to the bookstore and read a chapter of it. The next time I went to a bookstore, I read another. Then another. Then I just needed to have it. It took me so long to finish because I was studying for SAT's and I got sick and stuff. Anyway.
Most of the time, predictable endings just don't do it for me. But this time it's not about the ending. The ending is predictable and simple and anyone would just shrug it off, but it's about the story behind the happy ending. It's about the strength of the human will. It's about determination and bravery and taking control. It was very inspirational.
To be frank, though, what made it especially amazing was the way James Frey portrayed all of that in his words. I am the biggest fan of details. He picked the perfect words, phrased things the way I like them phrased. His simplicity adds so much power to the book's overall effect. Less is more. His writing style is straightforward and blunt. It's a really nice change from most of the other books I've read. He left just the right amount of space for the readers to imagine the characters and situations the way they like.
I could really relate to this book personally; not addiction-wise, but moral-wise. Spiritual-wise. Strength and determination-wise. It was motivational and powerful.
This book is perfect.

EDIT: Okay, technically, the ending isn't happy. But it was to me. The fact that James Frey wrote the conclusion very curtly kind of gave me the feeling that the James in the story moved on from whatever had happened. I realize it's a bit insensitive, but I guess the ending had no effect on me because it simply wasn't elaborated. It's still not about the ending for me.

This book wasn't easy to read, by any means, between the detail in which he described his addiction, recovery and everything in between and the annoying use of capitol letters. But, I am glad I read this book. It really gave me insight into the life of a recovering addict. True or not, controvery aside, I certainly recommend this book.

Chelsea Breher

Ugh this tore my heart into a million little pieces. It is Frey's story of strength, recovery, addiction, struggles, and more.

Sunelle Chamberlain

An honest book about rehab from drugs and alcohol and the daily struggle that will be part of an addicts life after rehab.

Heather Killeen

So I know there is all this controversy over the fact that there are probably things in this 'non-fiction' book that aren't true, but it actually made me think about this character and story a little deeper that I probably normally would have. At it's core, it's a story about a person/character goes through horrible things, makes terrible decisions, and tries to find redemption and a way to move forward when it seems impossible. If that's not inspiring I don't know what is. Maybe it's because I don't read a lot of non-fiction, but you don't have to read NF to find inspiring content and characters. Does it matter if all the details are true or not? I am of the opinion that it doesn't. I feel like he wants to believe the details of this book in their essence were true, so I did too. It's an interesting issue because the MC is searching for truth throughout the book; accepting his own horrible truths of his past mistakes, and desperately searching for a way to live and think about this recovery in a way that is true to him. I think what I'm trying to say is, the controversy on top of the character's own struggles through the book, really made me think about the difference between "non-fiction" and "truth" and whether or not you can have one and not the other. 

The book ends with a stubborn and heroic statement about inner strength conquering all, which I wanted to believe, but started to feel was stretch against my own definitions of truth. Still, the frank and earnest way the story is written, made me root for the characters and made the book really hard to put down. It was difficult to read at times, but I really like what it says about trying to live in a way that is true to you, even if the odds are impossible.

Andrea McGuffey

I read this years after it came out that it wasn't 100% true and I would have given it 3, maybe even 4 stars if it wasn't for the fact that I didn't care too much for the writting style. I really liked the story it's self and it wasn't the broken, one word sentances that bugged me. It was the repetativeness. It got extreamly annoying after about 20 pages. The story kept me interested though and I still finished it pretty quickly. If I could, I would give it 2 1/2 stars.

I.m. ruzz

I didn't appreciate the public dressing down Harpo gave James Frey. I didn't think it was warranted, or fair, and frankly I felt betrayed more by his cowardice--and its implications on the potential truth of his main character--when faced with the large estrogen fueled demi-god of daytime television. 

he let me down more there than he ever did in the "lie" of his book. 

What's interesting then, is that I didn't expect for any of this to impact my second reading of the novel. I wanted to return back to his world with it's choppy emotion and barely covered rage--which we now know are the day dreams of a scared little boy--but what I found was page after page of betrayal. 

One of the core tenants of his recovery is latching on to what is "true". What one can feel to be true, rather than what is said to be true, or known to be true--or in the case of AA proselytized to be true--and it is through this truth, brought in different characters throughout he finds some solid ground to stand on, and ultimately his way to a sort of recovery. 

Disregarding the obvious fact there's no such thing as recovery what I am left with is the deep sense that the very fabric of the novel unwove itself in my hands as i read through it a second time. One lie burnt through the brush of his pounding word rhythms and consumed, from the inside out, what was a touching, heartfelt and relateable story. 

Moreover, in light of this I've decided to stear clear of his works in the future (unless someone drags me to one). With all the hundreds of thousands of books out there I will never get to read before I die he just doesn't make it on the radar.

A Million Little Pieces

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