James Frey wrote a book called 'A Million Little Pieces' about recovering from drug addiction. it's an OK read. It was published by Doubleday as a memoir. Then it was discovered that a lot of it is fiction and a case has been brought against him in the States. I copied the following about it:

'His insistence that people who write memoirs are not writing what he called journalistic truth touched a raw nerve, especially among journalists, editors and writers who publicly question whether writing a memoir should be a licence to lie.
Many were upset the publishers had defended the book because it had a large impact on millions of readers who felt themselves inspired by Frey's story of his recovery.
The New York Times in an editorial on Friday entitled "Call it Fiction," said, "Even in a nation like ours, which is crazy for personal redemption, readers are still willing to distinguish between truth and fiction."
The Times admitted that "a memoir is, indeed, a loose and slippery genre -- as loose and slippery as memory itself. And there's a difference, even in publishing, between the lies we tell about ourselves and the lies we tell about others."'

I don't come down on either side myself, but if I was reading a biography, or an autobiography, I wouldn't want any of it to be fiction, but even biographers have to make some assumptions along the way if the subject is dead. What do you think?
Becca.

Hi I have been following this with some interest.

It seems so strange because what he lied about - being arrested and imprisoned for hitting a policeman - is I understand a small part of a very powerful book and message . I think there is something grandiose about a writer who has been through the hell of drug addiction - as if that is not struggle enough - to then embellish it with a 'three months in jail' lie. I am surprised that the lie was not picked out in editing. Surely, the time in jail and the details of being an addict in jail would have to be told in all its gory details? The rest of the book must have been pretty special....

That said, I really don't understand why any reader however disgruntled by the truth of the story would then go to the trouble of finding a lawyer and suing DoubleDay on the grounds of mislabeling and consumer fraud. S

Yes, this is very interesting.

Fiction can tell the truth better than the truth. It can emphasise what requires emotional emphasis - something that might be too subtle in reality.

There are lots of reasons why fiction is more honest thn the truth!

His insistence that people who write memoirs are not writing what he called journalistic truth

Up to a point that's true, because it's all perception and subjective and memory distorts. However he can't have misperceived a three month jail sentence that never happened. That's just a straight lie.

I'm guessing, from what's said, his rationalisation is that 'okay, it didn't happen to me, but it's a common feature of much drug addiction so it's valid', why didn't he just write a piece of fiction based on his own experience, allowing him to incorporate what was common but outside his own personal experience?

But then that would have been just another novel, whereas 'Memoir' carries more power through it's supposed authenticity. Then he went on to lie to sensationalise his Memoir, making it a better read. I can't help but think that he's got the best of both worlds here, the power of Memoir, the sensationalism of fiction, leading to a bigger market and more dollars.

Like Becca (and I do read a lot of auto/biography) I like to believe that - as far as it's possible within the author's ken - none of it is fiction. To make a deliberate lie in Memoir degrades and undermines the credibility of the rest of it. Seems a sad and pointless thing to do.

Andrea

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like Shika though, I can't see why anyone would go to the trouble of taking out a lawsuit against him. Surely the revelation he did this basically kills the book anyway?

As far as I know a lot of people who struggle with addiction took courage from 'A Million Little Pieces', and a lot of people who don't use drugs wanted to know something of the experience. Apparently his next book is going to be proper fiction. If he can now write a good fiction, then I think he'll be redeemed, but there's danger for him if all his material is bound up in his own experiences and his observations of people in a similar situation and he can't move away into a less introverted world. I think his second book is about someone he met in rehab.
I've read the first book and, what did I think? That the length of it, 513 paperback pages, were too many for the story he had to tell, but I'm a shorts writer, so I would say that! Apparently it's going to be made into a film.
I wish him luck because he's on that road where everyone is waiting with bated breath for what he does next.
The Literary Review described the first book as 'clear sighted and intellectually honest.'- I reckon people's noses are a little out of joint, and the reader who decided to take him to court is just an opportunist, who needs something more productive to do with his or her time.
Becca.

As far as I know a lot of people who struggle with addiction took courage from 'A Million Little Pieces'

I'm sure they did and that's what troubles me - that they found in retrospect they had taken courage from and identified with someone who it turned out had knowingly lied to them. That would make me wonder what else might be a lie, and would degrade for me what I'd taken from it. I'd feel cheated as it was branded as Memoir, and I'd therefore have taken it in good faith as true (and James Frey does, after all, say in his 'How To' manuals that when you write a book you make a contract with your reader and you must keep it). Perhaps others would respond differently.

Andrea

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The Literary Review described the first book as 'clear sighted and intellectually honest

it may have seemed intellectually honest, but in part at least it turns out it wasn't.

Let's not hold a book burning ceremony just yet. As someone who has battled with a drug problem, I think that a lot of people are missing the point. Ani touched on it, however. When you're continually off your tits, the line between truth and reality is blurred. You are wholly susceptible to false memory syndrome, and can think things have happened when they actually haven't.

Drugs affect memory like you wouldn't believe, and after my rehabilitation ten years ago, it took a while to work out what was fact and what was fiction is my own life. I write about this in my first novel Unrequited, which is based loosely around my own bad experiences in narcotics and abuse, and love and memory.

I think Frey is probably just reflecting the same thing. Let's be honest here - if every 'memoir' waas pulled apart, how much of it would be shown to be false? It is all from a subjective point of view. Maybe in Frey's mind, the arrest 'happened'.

JB

JB,

Sure, as I've already said, all Memoir is perception, he says that himself in

His insistence that people who write memoirs are not writing what he called journalistic truth

But that statement doesn't suggest to me he feels he had a false memory, rather he's making the case for Memoir-as-personal-perception. Then again it doesn't say he doesn't feel he had a false memory. Does anyone know what he has to say on the point?

I too agree with Ani's statement - all fiction is 'lies', but it can show the most pure truth. But this wasn't presented or sold as fiction-as-truth but truth-as-truth and people were entitled to take it that he had presented the truth as far as he was able. If he knowingly presented a falsehood as truth, then for me everything I've said stands.

But maybe you're right, maybe he did believe at the time of writing and publishing it had 'happened' (in which case Mr Frey, Very Sorry), let's wait and see ...

Andrea

It brings back memories of Carlos Castaneda who wrote a series of books in the 1970's claiming he had literally been put through a ritual journey of 'awareness' at the hands of a real man, Don Juan, a shaman. Magical plants were involved in the rituals. Anthropologists put him on their reading lists, I was an anthropology student, and remember it clearly. Later, in an interview he was revealled as a fraudster. He made the whole thing up, but it was compelling and clever. And you could only admire the nerve of the man. As far as I know, he wasn't taken to court by anyone,(although I don't know this for certain, - but I think we'd have heard about it if it happened). I think that the fact that one reader thinks it OK to do that to James Frey now, in 2006, reflects how differently people think now, how meanly perhaps, how small mindedly, or how jealously?
Becca.

Becca,

I remember reading the Carlos Castaneda books, my A level teacher gave them to me and I thought they were just fantastic, man. When I found out they were a fraud, I shrugged ... they were still a great read. No harm done.

What concerns me more about the James Frey thing is this

As far as I know a lot of people who struggle with addiction took courage from

Yeah, I'm sure a likely part of his readership was/would be hoping-to-recover or recovering addicts looking to his book for inspiration, people trusting that his story was true and if he'd done it they could do it too. He's a market savvy guy, surely he'd have realised the possibility of that? And when we present a 'truth' we're all inviting people to believe and trust us. Bearing in mind the possible vulnerability of his readership, I feel he had an extra responsibility to justify that trust.

Who knows, maybe I'm being too precious. Maybe he felt it didn't matter whether what he gave them that might inspire was true if it worked, and it's come back to bite him on the ass - if he's shaken no one's trust at a moment in their lives they really needed to put trust in those who inspired him, no real harm done, other to seriously dent his future as a Memoirist.

Andrea

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And now I'm gonna turn off my e-mail notification, cos I'm getting way too distracted pondering and posting about this when I should be writing. So no offence to anyone if I don't reply

I read the book late last year. Thought it was very powerful, though quite flawed as a memoir and in serious need of a sensitive editor. That aside, I really enjoyed it (in a harrowing sort of way) and thought I'd gleaned a better understanding of drug addiction, which I was looking forward to applying to those parts of my life that are affected by it (parts being family members). Finding out that some of it is fiction doesn't make me feel that all of that learning is now invalid, but I am now keen to get to the bottom of what is and isn't true. I've just read a long article about some people who were investigating Frey, and it appears that very significant aspects of the 'story' are untrue - not just slightly fabricated but wildly. The arrest/jail sentence mentioned is very central to the story of his recovery - as 'plots' go it's a biggie.

It's a shame, because as a piece of fiction it's really rather good (but according to the article no one wanted to publish it as fiction). Strange that the publishers don't seem to have checked his facts before sending it into the world.

I won't read the sequel but I'm not sorry I read this.

Myrtle

Turned off the notification, but it still came. Myrtle's post made me curious to know more. Here's a link for anyone interested

The Smoking Gun

Andrea

Yep, that's the article I read. This letter from Frey is very revealing, especially the first paragraph:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/jamesfrey/freysides/doubleday1.html

Yes, very revealing ...

And even if only a quarter of what TSG alleges is true, the rest of it is positively jaw-dropping

Andrea

I used to know the man who had been Rumer Godden's editor. At one meeting about a volume of her memoirs he suggested that she'd dealt with one important episode in a rather perfunctory way. She agreed. 'There was a letter, I think, but I can't remember what it said. (Turning to her husband) Can you? No? Oh, never mind, I'll write it now.' And she borrowed pen and paper and there and then produced the letter to be presented in her memoirs as have been written by someone else, twenty years before.

Emma