A Million Little Pieces

Sometime in the early 90's i was sitting in Harvard Square having coffee with author, Tim O'Brien. We were talking about his best seller, "The Things They Carried". I took a deep breath and asked him, "Is this book true?"He blew across the surface of his coffee and said to me, "None of that stuff happened," Then a sip. "But it's all true."Some of you are saying, "how can this be so?' but i ask you to indulge me- as i will again later- because Mr. O'Brien is considered one of today's finest American writer's. True can mean so very much and given the memoir- a true account of the authors own life- or portion thereof- from the authors perspective one can hardly expect the facts to be such as a primary and secondary source biography of Thomas Jefferson. Clinical fact and emotional fact are two different things. Let me show you:Think of one of the worst things that ever happened to you. For half of you this could well be your divorce. Some of you, the loss of a love one through death; some of you it could be the battler with a horrible disease. Regardless, pick it, stick with it and stay with me.If I asked you to write me a 5,000 word description of your last seven days living with your ex-spouse and then asked him/her to do the same, will you tell me that I will receive two identical documents? I should hope not, because were that the case, you could have saved the marriage, but the truth is that you won't tell the same story and neither of you will have lied. You've heard the cliché' "there are three sides to every story." People with guilt believe that this means the truth, his lies and her lies (or any facsimile there-of) where what this cliché' means is that there are the base facts; not at all affected by human emotion. Then his story will be peppered by his past emotions, experiences and the tone of her voice. Her story will be peppered with memories of comments her mother made, or body image issues or some scene from a movie she saw years ago. No emotion stands alone and our recollection of events are not sterile and without other influences. So when writing a memoir such as "A Million Little pieces' not only did Mr. Frey write with the Tim O'Brien philosophy but he wrote based on how he remembered things.Regardless, i was so moved by this book that when 'THE CONTROVERSY" first began I said, "I just don't care." And the, as a writer myself, I thought about the fifteen pages it would take for me to get to the truth about an event from myt childhood and how, after an hour of thinking, I was able to get to the very same truth by altering some of the events leading up to it I decided to do the latter. After all, if my goal is to get to the truth, does it matter what road I used to get there? some may say that it does, but if my point is to tell of how my grandmother was taken away by ambulance because she took an entire bottle of Seconal when I was in seventh grade does it matter that I had to behave bravely because I was babysitting for the first time and it was the daughter of the farm hand who had found my grandmother and how hard it was for me to control the lump in my throat because of the huge back story having to do with this farm hand or could I simply find another way to get to the lump in my throat without bringing in the entire story of the farm hand?I saved my readers fifteen pages and a lot of information that had little to no bearing on the plot and the importance of what I wanted to say came through just as beautifully. In fact, because I did not force my reader to read paragraph after paragraph of back story about the farm hands bizarre connection to my family the reader was STILL READING when it was time to get to the real truth.Mr. Frey, thank you for your brilliant and beautiful book. In regard to the controversial press let me offer this quote from Joyce Carol Oats: "The punishment for being a writer is literary critics."Hang in there, Mr. Frey. The rest of you: read the book to discover the controversy; read the book because it is remarkably well written; read the book because I've given you plenty of reasons to do so; read the book because in a world full of hate it's nice to find some beauty. Don't let someone other than yourself decide for you.

I enjoyed this book, a lot. It’s gritty, raw, and accurate. True or based on true is irrelevant. The story is relevant. Strong characters. Just my opinion, obvs.

James Frey's memoir of his six weeks in rehab gives an insider view of the challenges of recovery, a view I appreciated since I have a sibling who is a long-time alcoholic (and who lost everything in his service to his disease). This book gave me a greater appreciation for the very real and compelling difficulties of getting and staying clean. It's written "coldly", that is, without apologies or complaints (in general) and the story itself and its many characters make it a page-turner. I would have liked to understand them in more depth, however, something that Frey appears to have been unwilling to do. Action rather than introspection is the focus of the work; the reader will not hear the author explain much, if anything, on motives or perspectives on the action. This withholding both enhances and inhibits the book. In the end I felt that his withholding marred Frey's account and that is why I could not give his book five stars. Enduring through a horrific ordeal and remaining outside the grip of addiction are admirable, no question. I applaud Frey for being forthcoming about the surface details of his experience, including his confession of the crimes committed as an addict. Writing the story and yet failing to give a richer, deeper perspective, one wrought from honest and vulnerable introspection--a kind of recollection in traquility--made me leave the experience of reading his book with a sense that something crucial was missing. If you like to read a book just for story, this is a terrific account of the visceral experience of recovery. If you want to know what is in the mind of the addict on the road to recovery, what the psychological experience is like and what drives an individual toward the will to recover, you may find yourself somewhat disappointed.

This helped me with a loved one

Very easy read and well done. I purchased it as a gift as I enjoyed it so much. Delivered with no issues.

I used to be a user so I could relate to what the author went through during his time at rehab.The struggle with overcoming an addiction is dark and real but easy when you surround yourself with good people.

It doesn't matter to me that some, or most, of this book is fabricated.Some books stay with you.The conversations, stories, camaraderie building up to the friendship group are probably some of the best bits. I cared about the characters especially poor broken John, Miles and his clarinet, Leonard who I liked best of all. Matty the sweary boxer and Ed, every man hard living worker.The dentist scene had my toes curling. As did the frequent vomiting parts where it seems most of his insides came up, time and time again. Perhaps this is where I doubted. There's addicts in their 40s and 50s here. I imagine their insides would be like this, not so much a 23 year old.I can picture Lily. Her moon shaped eyes and her long black hair. I couldn't see a future for them though, as much as I wanted them to be happy. It's disaster for recovering addicts to pair up. I work in a related service and even married couples are advised not to be together. One might make it, then be dragged back down by the other.It was just all so tragic. They were all decent guys in the book. Broken souls. So much pressure on men to be men. Tough and strong.I was in a room, in the 90s, where folk were chasing the dragon. It was passed to me. I shook my head. It was then given to the person sitting next to me. All friends who had drunk, danced and laughed together. None of them lived. The woman whose flat it was got her children taken off her. It's a mugs game. For those, however, who have demons to escape from, there are so many temptations out there. A whole section of the commercial world peddling evil.As a child watching Dallas, Falcon Crest, The Golden Girls etc, it seemed to me Americans popped valium every 5 minutes.By the 90s, it was too late. The damage was done. The 1990s were the toxic vomit of the 1980s.I wept reading the end of this. It was sadder than I'd been expecting So typical of the woke press members who treat digging into and exposing people as a bloodsport, triumphantly holding the authors head on a stick for all to sneer at. I'm almost pleased Lily was made up. She's the one I cried most for. There's been plenty Lilys in my town.So whether a novel, a semi autobiographical or more true than not true, this is a gripping read. I've devoured it over one weekend. I couldn't put it down. I can't believe folk actually went for refunds, if they believed they'd been duped. Stinks of La-la Land that. I'm surprised they didn't sue him.

Got this in ebook form during a monthly amazon sale and I was a little skeptical on the content - I've been working with people struggling with addiction and I've read on the controversy around this story. I honestly didn't care that much about the controversy and immersed myself completely in the book. Sometimes it's a little painful to read for how detialed some things are, but I definitely think it's a useful book to understand the perspective of people struggling with addiction and the point of view of theire families too. Would recommend

Non è Guerra e Pace e neanche Cime Tempestose, ma il libro si legge d'un fiato e ha la qualità di quei film adrenalinici alla Limitless per capirci. Bello. Il seguito invece (My friend Leonard) poteva risparmiarcelo