Wow.
Thanks Anj and Myrtle for pointing the article out. I was struck too in the audio tape by his saying he'd been fascinated by addicted people as a kid, (the same stuff that was in the letter).

It was my daughter, who works with addicts, who gave me 'A Million Little Pieces' to read, and she was stunned by it because she said one of the consistant things about addicts she'd come across was that they were master liars, and that was the most difficult aspect of trying to work with them. Ironic that.
Becca.

In the Guardian on Friday:

James Frey defends his book on Larry King Live:

James Frey, author of A Million Little Pieces, the bestselling memoir of drug addiction, has admitted that parts of the book were made up.
Appearing beside his mother on Larry King Live he accepted that he had altered details of his life, but defended the "essential truth" of A Million Little Pieces. "I've acknowledged that I changed things," he said, "that in certain cases things were toned up, in certain cases, things were toned down." But he claimed to have altered only 5% of the material, "within the realm of what's appropriate for a memoir".

have a look at http://www.guardian.co.uk/books for more

In a slightly similar vein, does anyone remember 'Go Ask Alice' a slim volume that did the rounds in the late sixties or early seventies about the perils of drug addiction? I think I was about 11 or 12 and just starting secondary school when my mother thrust it into my hands and ordered me to read it so that I wouldn't 'go bad.' I felt utterly assaulted by the narrator's experiences and determined to stay a good girl. Years later when I discovered it was a work of fiction though possibly loosely based on an accumulation of experiences, I was disappointed and felt duped. However it certainly did what the label said and stayed in the back of my mind as a warning, so under the circumstances I don't think Frey should be hung, drawn and quartered and I agree with JB, perhaps his perceptions went a little awry after years of abuse.

Lol!
I'd like to see his fiction.
Becca.

Well, at least he's being honest about it now. And experiences put into this context and marketed as a memoir, are surely allowed to 'fluff themselves up' in order to appeal to a reader? I don't see anything wrong with it, per se, and wouldn't put it on the same scale as Blairs lies over WMD.

Oh - I read Go Ask Alice too. It didn't really work though. Until you mentioned it, I thought it was a completely true account. I guess my reaction to it is 'who cares?'.

JB

<Added>

...about the fact people lie in their memoirs, not about girls who die from heroin abuse.

Just resurrecting this as I started reading Frey yesterday - and it has gripped me.

I agree that any made up stuff doesn't detract from the core of the book (and the stuff that addicts might take away as inspiration).

What Wax says about drugs and memory is very true. In my journalist days, I had to interview a club promoter with a drug-addled history (further complicated by years living on the streets, with no sense of routine). I was supposed to write his life story and it was a nightmare! I submitted it and my editor said, "This has no time frame". My reponse was, "His life has no time frame!" My editor made me call him again to clarify details. I did and he just contradicted himself and made it all even worse. In the end, I left it with my editor to be creative with the truth just to make the piece make sense (I couldn't do it - I'm too moral to be a journalist).

I read 'Go Ask Alice' and even made up a performance piece based on it for A-level Drama. I thought it was true too - and it didn't prevent me from any of my more wayward teenage behaviour either.

Cath

I kept reading Frey's book too, Cath, and I was most interested in the slick gangster character he wrote about. Dan Brown's taken over the limelight in terms of writers in trouble now, so I've lost track of what's happened to Frey. I guess that in whatever way writers get to the attention of the public, once there, they'd not be ignored by publishers and agents.

What you said about a life with no time-frame is really interesting, I'll be thinking about that for a good long time.
Becca.

Cath,

I kind of agree...but I'd be really interested to know if you feel the same way when you get to the end of the book and then discover which bits weren't true and which characters didn't exist. Or perhaps your perspective will be different anyway because you've started the book with that knowledge...?

I think Frey was dumped by his agent. Be interesting to see where he goes from here. He's certainly an interesting writer, though I think the prose could've done with a damn good prune in some places, but overall a highly stimulating book.

Myrtle

I read somewhere that his Uk publisher John Murray are pasting a warning into the beginning of his book, and possibly that the contract for his next book's in trouble.

Emma

Yeah, I'm going to wait until I get to the end before I read up on what was allegedly true and not. I'm getting through it at a fast rate - although yeah, I do keep noticing bits that need editing!

Becca, yeah the life with no time frame thing is interesting. Drugs combined with living on the streets... and he said he had no watch either.

Last I heard he was living in a mansion in the country and most of the people he knew on the streets are dead.

Cath