For those of you griping about the fallout considering it's a memoir, there's a few key points you should remember.
Frey was not a well-known figure when these books came out.
Let's compare this to a Nixon or Clinton memoir. We know both men reasonably well, and part of the interest in reading it is how the author glosses over the stupid shit that happened, or how he cast blame on someone else, or if he actually did say "Yeah, I did it, and that was fucking stupid."
I don't believe Nixon ever made up from whole fabric any wild stories about how him and Golda Meir had a secret love affair and how he once kicked J. Edgar Hoover's ass to make him stop wearing pumps. Likewise, we have a reasonable expectation about where Clinton's memoir may be straying a bit from the truth, and part of the interest of reading it is in seeing the man's perspective on what he did and working out what's real and what's spin.
This guy was pretty much nobody before these books came out. Short of fact-checking (which IMO should've been the publisher's job), we have every expectation that the facts will be true. Sure he'll paint himself better or worse here or there, but not make up entire sections of the book.
He's lied about being best friends with a local gal who died that he barely even knew. He lied about all sorts of things. And it wasn't just a memoir. It was a memoir that seems directed towards affecting how people approach handling recovery.
If a fair portion of the book is fiction, that means it's basically shit.
Has anyone talking shit about the book actually read it? The parts that were made up were put there to add a little drama to the book. They have nothing to do with the overall message that is being conveyed. I read it and I thought it was goddamn amazing. Just because a couple random parts [very well written parts at that] aren't entirely true, people feel the need to badmouth and act like they are so much better.
If any of you naysayers have written anything half as interesting please feel free to send me a copy. I have yet to meet a person who actually read the book, and didn't like it.
...One last thing: This is so fucking stupid, what kind of cheap fuck will actually send in a torn out page for a refund? Same kind of sad people that will return food to the grocery store because they "didn't like the way it tasted", while the actual product is perfectly fine.
Matthew_O said:
...One last thing: This is so fucking stupid, what kind of cheap fuck will actually send in a torn out page for a refund? Same kind of sad people that will return food to the grocery store because they "didn't like the way it tasted", while the actual product is perfectly fine.
What kind of stupid fuck buys something, doesn't like it, and then *doesn't* take advantage of a refund if it's offered?
I don't understand why they don't just move it over to the Fiction section and save themselves millions of dollars. Or why they didn't when all the controversy started to begin with.
I was working in a bookstore when all that went down and I had to put all these stupid fliers in the books from Random House and James Frey (it was basically an apology to the reader).
i work in a bookstore as well (well, the coffeeshop) and i was discussing this story w/some of the booksellers and found out that Frey originally tried to sell the piece as fiction, but the publishers wouldn't touch it. later on, he revises the piece and sells it as his memoirs: BOOM! The publishers are all over it.
Matthew_O said:
If any of you naysayers have written anything half as interesting please feel free to send me a copy.
By that dumb logic, I should also reject your opinion that the book is good because you haven't ever written anything half as interesting.
And again, part of the book's message was that Frey found a way to recovery that was better than the "liars" and idiots in 12 step programs. Unfortunately, he was a liar himself. So, yes, the message of the book is pretty compromised. In my opinion, it's doubtful that he was even an addict.
Matthew_O said:
If any of you naysayers have written anything half as interesting please feel free to send me a copy.
By that dumb logic, I should also reject your opinion that the book is good because you haven't ever written anything half as interesting.
And again, part of the book's message was that Frey found a way to recovery that was better than the "liars" and idiots in 12 step programs. Unfortunately, he was a liar himself. So, yes, the message of the book is pretty compromised. In my opinion, it's doubtful that he was even an addict.
exactly. and yeah, i read the stupid book while actually IN REHAB. it was being passed around. i thought it was stupid and unrealistic in the first place. i have no doubt he was some kind of sucky, exaggerating, lying addict type though. maybe someone still just addicted to lying and drama which a lot of addicts are.
and being that kind of LIAR goes against everything in recovery. it means you need to work on yourself some more...face some actual facts. it really doesn't work, therefore the book DOES NOT WORK SINCE HE MADE SO MUCH SHIT UP.
sure it has moments as fiction to someone who has never had any kind of true addiction problem, but not for anyone who has ACTUALLY BEEN THERE.
it's an insult to every dear hearted crotchety old chain smoking 69 year old AA member who has worked really, really hard to get where he is in life.
Matthew_O said:
If any of you naysayers have written anything half as interesting please feel free to send me a copy.
By that dumb logic, I should also reject your opinion that the book is good because you haven't ever written anything half as interesting.
And again, part of the book's message was that Frey found a way to recovery that was better than the "liars" and idiots in 12 step programs. Unfortunately, he was a liar himself. So, yes, the message of the book is pretty compromised. In my opinion, it's doubtful that he was even an addict.
If you would like the link to my journal, please send me a message.
thorpig
Japan
January 2004
MAY 18, 2007 11:43 PM