A Million Little Pieces
3 journalers for this copy...
From Publishers Weekly
Frey is pretender to the throne of the aggressive, digressive, cocky Kings David: Eggers and Foster Wallace. Pre-pub comparisons to those writers spring not from Frey's writing but from his attitude: as a recent advance profile put it, the 33-year-old former drug dealer and screenwriter "wants to be the greatest literary writer of his generation." While the Davids have their faults, their work is unquestionably literary. Frey's work is more mirrored surface than depth, but this superficiality has its attractions. With a combination of upper-middle-class entitlement, street credibility garnered by astronomical drug intake and PowerPoint-like sentence fragments and clipped dialogue, Frey proffers a book that is deeply flawed, too long, a trial of even the most na‹ve reader's credulousness-yet its posturings hit a nerve. This is not a new story: boy from a nice, if a little chilly, family gets into trouble early with alcohol and drugs and stays there. Pieces begins as Frey arrives at Hazelden, which claims to be the most successful treatment center in the world, though its success rate is a mere 17%. There are flashbacks to the binges that led to rehab and digressions into the history of other patients: a mobster, a boxer, a former college administrator, and Lilly, his forbidden love interest, a classic fallen princess, former prostitute and crack addict. What sets Pieces apart from other memoirs about 12-stepping is Frey's resistance to the concept of a higher power. The book is sure to draw criticism from the recovery community, which is, in a sense, Frey's great gimmick. He is someone whose problems seem to stem from being uncomfortable with authority, and who resists it to the end, surviving despite the odds against him. The prose is repetitive to the point of being exasperating, but the story, with its forays into the consciousness of an addict, is correspondingly difficult to put down.
Frey is pretender to the throne of the aggressive, digressive, cocky Kings David: Eggers and Foster Wallace. Pre-pub comparisons to those writers spring not from Frey's writing but from his attitude: as a recent advance profile put it, the 33-year-old former drug dealer and screenwriter "wants to be the greatest literary writer of his generation." While the Davids have their faults, their work is unquestionably literary. Frey's work is more mirrored surface than depth, but this superficiality has its attractions. With a combination of upper-middle-class entitlement, street credibility garnered by astronomical drug intake and PowerPoint-like sentence fragments and clipped dialogue, Frey proffers a book that is deeply flawed, too long, a trial of even the most na‹ve reader's credulousness-yet its posturings hit a nerve. This is not a new story: boy from a nice, if a little chilly, family gets into trouble early with alcohol and drugs and stays there. Pieces begins as Frey arrives at Hazelden, which claims to be the most successful treatment center in the world, though its success rate is a mere 17%. There are flashbacks to the binges that led to rehab and digressions into the history of other patients: a mobster, a boxer, a former college administrator, and Lilly, his forbidden love interest, a classic fallen princess, former prostitute and crack addict. What sets Pieces apart from other memoirs about 12-stepping is Frey's resistance to the concept of a higher power. The book is sure to draw criticism from the recovery community, which is, in a sense, Frey's great gimmick. He is someone whose problems seem to stem from being uncomfortable with authority, and who resists it to the end, surviving despite the odds against him. The prose is repetitive to the point of being exasperating, but the story, with its forays into the consciousness of an addict, is correspondingly difficult to put down.
Journal Entry 2 by 
perryfran
at Bookrelay in BookRelay.Com, Bookrelay -- Controlled Releases on Sunday, September 10, 2006
perryfran at Bookrelay in BookRelay.Com, Bookrelay -- Controlled Releases on Sunday, September 10, 2006
Released 17 yrs ago (9/11/2006 UTC) at Bookrelay in BookRelay.Com, Bookrelay -- Controlled Releases
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Bookrelay to Oldreader in Citrus Heights, CA. Enjoy!
Bookrelay to Oldreader in Citrus Heights, CA. Enjoy!
just arrived.adding to top of tbr
Do not see what all the hype is about.Was a bit disapointed in this one.Am sending out to Seattle within a couple days,bookrelay.
Journal Entry 5 by oldreader at RABCK in A RABCK, A Bookcrossing member -- Controlled Releases on Friday, October 13, 2006
Released 17 yrs ago (10/9/2006 UTC) at RABCK in A RABCK, A Bookcrossing member -- Controlled Releases
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via bookrelay
via bookrelay
Recieved this from oldreader as partof the Hot-hot-hotish relay. I had borrowed it from a client earlier this year and gotten about half through it. Maybe this time I will get all the way through it. I don't know. Its not very well written and awfully redundant, so I stick with it out of morbid fascination.
It still amazes me that Oprah could have been taken in by James Frey and have to admit that I have less respect for her because of it. After all, she is an inteligent woman and has a background in journalism. I can't be sure because I did not begin reading it until the cat was out of the bag, but I think that I would have suspected something was fishy about a few pages in.
It still amazes me that Oprah could have been taken in by James Frey and have to admit that I have less respect for her because of it. After all, she is an inteligent woman and has a background in journalism. I can't be sure because I did not begin reading it until the cat was out of the bag, but I think that I would have suspected something was fishy about a few pages in.
