A Million Little Pieces

[Lucybird]

Synopsis (from Amazon)

 

When he entered a residential treatment centre at the age of twenty-three, James Frey had destroyed his body and his mind almost beyond repair. He faced a stark choice: accept that he wasn’t going to see twenty-four or step into the fallout of his smoking wreck of a life and take drastic action. Surrounded by patients as troubled as he, Frey had to fight to find his own way to confront the consequences of the life he had lived so far, and to determine what future, if any, he has. A Million Little Pieces is an uncommon account of a life destroyed and a life reconstructed.

 

Review.

 

This is another book which has been on my TBR pile for a long time. Part of what put me off it the controversy over whether it was fiction or not. Certainly it was written as if it was an autobiography, but in parts it just seemed too, perfect I suppose. Some of the more unbelieveable things I could believe, because although they were hard to believe they fell into the category where you could imagine them happening in certain ways. Ultimately it was Lilly that made me not believe, but I will say no more than that because of spoilers. In terms of writing style it was pretty easy to read, although in parts it felt almost as if you were reading a list, a sort of ‘I did this, then this happened so I did this’. The conversation was hard to follow in parts because it was so infrequently told who was actually speaking. It carried you through quite easily though and the topic was interesting enough that you didn’t get bored with the writing style. At some points Frey would talk for too long about something which really wasn’t interesting, like documenting a fight which was on TV, I really didn’t care, and at these points I did notice how boring the writing style was. As far as topic went at times it was hard or uncomfortable to read, and it parts quite graphic. There was lots of swearing, which was generally unnecessary and might put some people off but I suppose it made things more realistic. As far as the more graphic sections went it was unflinching and almost matter of fact about what was going on which did for me seem the way that someone who had gone through those things would talk about them.

 

Overall, not the best written book, and at time it drags. But when I was interested I was really interested, and I do wish I had read it sooner.

 

3.5/5

 

 

Do you guys think this book is really a memoir, or is it fiction? Why?

 

Do you think it matters if it's true or not?

 

Personally I think it may be a mix of both, a fiction book with fact based inspiration. I don't really care if it is real or not but because I know there's controversy I found myself trying to work out all the way through whether I thought if it was real or not and this probably spoiled it a bit for me.

 

 

[bookworm44]

I voted for a mix of both.

 

I read this book about a month before it came out that Frey had lied and most of what he wrote in the book wasn't true. I loved it when I read it; I thought it was different and interesting. However, there were many times in the book that I questioned if certain situations were true. I would think, no way this happened, but it’s a memoir, it must have happened. I definitely felt duped when the truth came out. I don't know why he chose to lie, seemed silly to me when he could have just published it as a work of fiction based loosely on his life.

 

 

[Nollaig]

I thought it was a pretty good read, and I already knew large parts had been fabricated when I read it. The most annoying thing for me was that he clearly felt A) that his own story wasn't interesting enough without fabrication and B) that his fabrication wasn't good enough without being true, so what was he doing trying to publish it in the first place? I don't like the author, but as a book independant of it's truth value it's quite good. Still not amazing though.