For our next class, we'll be reading James Frey's controversial addiction memoir, A Million Little Pieces. Published in 2003, Frey's memoir went on to be one of the most celebrated books of the year, was translated into 31 languages, and, eventually, became one of Oprah's book club picks. Accusations about Frey fictionalizing details of his story came to light in 2006--primarily from the website The Smoking Gun, which provided extensive proof of Frey's many lies and prevarications.
Frey's work, despite its thorny reception, provides an ideal vehicle to talking about the links between memoir and fiction, the construction of the autobiographical 'I,' the public's voyeuristic interest in addiction chronicles.
Here's a transcript, from the Oprah website, of her god-awful “dressing down” of Frey after The Smoking Gun article came out. She also admonishes Frey’s publisher. It’s not included, but Oprah even opens the episode by criticizing herself for defending Frey once the scandal broke. Also missing is the subsequent Q & A, which was even more excruciating than the interview. Many audience members discussed what Frey had “taken” from them. Somewhat humorously, Oprah constantly references that the book was beyond belief, and excoriates the publisher, Nan Talese, for not doing enough research on Frey. She also moralizes on how, as an editor and publisher, she had an ethical responsibility to check her facts more thoroughly. You can read it all for yourself. Here’s the link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/oprahshow1_ss_20060126/1
I think the "beyond belief" is quite right--while Frey makes fun of Bobby for lying about how many drugs he is able to do, I questioned Frey's narration about his own indulgence. Jennifer and I briefly talked about this, and while it seems like he did go to rehab at some point, he talks about drugs more in the way that the "Wussies" do than the most consummate loadies I've known. To put it simply, he talks about crack the way the D.A.R.E. program talks about crack--it always has that ring of exaggeration.
ReplyDeleteQuestions of factuality aside, it's also poorly written, which I find more profoundly offensive than the lies. The cheeky, "experimental" style minimizes the actual experience of drug addicts, and denies texture to all of the characters--if they did in fact exist, they would likely be horrified that they'd been reduced to such trite "types" (hooker with a heart of gold, mobster with the kid's best interests in mind, angry social worker with whom the narrator reaches an uneasy peace, etc.).
What I find disturbing is that people need books like this to be true. After reading the Rak piece I couldn’t help thinking about the memoir and its relationship with community. We are desperate for authenticity, voyeurs seeking validation that, yes, things are as fucked up as they seem. I see this in the proliferation of talk shows and reality television, even the news (thank God I don’t have cable), and I want to know why we need “true-life” stories of horror to inspire us.
ReplyDeleteSo, in the Frey backlash I’m less concerned with A Little Million Piece’s factuality and more with the reaction to its untruthfulness. Why is it, that because the memoir has been embellished, it becomes second rate? What if the story were better written and published as a work of fiction? Would the fact that it’s a novel lesson its ability to inspire? I’m not saying novels should inspire—I think tales of inspiration are bullshit, for the most part—but why the need for truth? Do we think less of fictionalized suffering? Why are we so bloodthirsty for suffering?
Answers to these questions seem so simple, yet I don’t want to believe that. Like the James Frey in the book who’s always looking at his reflection in the mirror, monitoring his progress, we too need to see ourselves reflected back in the books we read and shows we watch. We need to be reassured of authenticity and reality. We need to believe in shared experience and community. These answers aren’t good enough for me. I guess it just scares me that one minute, someone like Frey can be praised for possessing an ideal experience, the next minute chastised because it doesn’t meet our standards.
A little ditty about Clive James: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104270016
ReplyDeleteI tried to post this before, but we all know how this can be... (Seems to work on the home computer but not at school...?)
ReplyDeletePerhaps another reason people were so angry about the lies was the sense of gloating. "Hey, my life is rough, but this guy has it worse than me. And he survived, so maybe I can too." Only, now it becomes, "Wait a minute... he didn't have it that bad at all. If he lied about all that, how can I trust that I can improve now?" Not to mention, "I thought he was more pathetic so he kinda deserved all that money in the end... but now... I want it myself!"
Ha. It was more eloquent the first time around. Oh well.
I also think that we can't ignore the fact that this book isn't just a fake memoir, but a fake memoir about trauma. It's personal, you know? When someone who's been through some type of trauma identifies with a book like Frey's and is then told it's not true, I think there's some form of betrayal involved there.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Kate about how plain bad the book is. To call something memoir in order to make up for how poorly written it is (it wouldn't get published as a novel, right?) is pretty damn slimy.
The following from Brittany York:
ReplyDeleteFor anyone who has cable, on CNBC at 9pm this Thursday is a program called The Oprah Effect. From the previews it looked like it was going to be looking at Oprah's industry and power, and its effects on the public. I just thought that could tie into the whole James Frey/Oprah's Book Club and impact.
Also from Brittany, this great link:
ReplyDeleteThey made a South Park episode to parody the James Frey controversy, so if you could post this link for me, that'd be great. You can watch the episode at the following site....
http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/103234