A Million Little Pieces

[Bangkok Superpussy]

A Million Little Pieces - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"At the age of 23, James Frey woke up on a plane to find his front teeth knocked out and his nose broken. He had no idea where the plane was headed nor any recollection of the past two weeks. An alcoholic for ten years and a crack addict for three, he checked into a treatment facility shortly after landing. There he was told he could either stop using or die before he reached age 24. A Million Little Pieces is Frey's acclaimed account of his six weeks in rehab."

Just finished reading it and I'm at sort of a loss for words. From the second we're introduced to James as "covered in a colorful mixture of spit, snot, urine, vomit and blood" to the gut wrenching gang rape scene towards the end, everything about A Million Little Pieces is brutal and horrific; there is no sugarcoating whatsoever to be found in this story. Never before have I read a book with a protagonist that exhibits such a level of self-hatred or a cast of characters who were so remarkably fucked up, for lack of any better term. I would not recommend it to a lighthearted person; the word "fuck" is probably used a minimum of two times per page (seriously -- I just opened the book to a random page and counted up the number of f-bombs to make a point, and it was 5) and between the violence, the disturbing depictions of hardcore drug use, the prostitution, the despair, the absolutely heart wrenching experienced that some of the characters have endured, the shame...there is something in this book to make just about anybody say "What the fuck?"

All of that being said, I fucking loved it. James Frey is a brilliant writer and his narrative style is perfect for portraying the psychological train wreck that is addiction. Aside from being highly entertaining, Frey's views on the cause of his own drug use and his denial of conventional means of recovery nicely break up the monotonous "not my fault, genetic predisposition for substance addiction" bullshit that's become such a popular excuse for users over the last several years. The relationships he builds with other patients at the clinic are, to say the least, interesting. I wasn't able to put this A Million Little Pieces down for a second until I'd finished it.

Definitely worth a read -- anybody else checked it out?


Also, please don't bog this thread down with bullshit about whether or not the story is true or how much of it is embellished. I don't really give a shit about how Lilly died or how much time Frey actually spent in prison. If the legitimacy of this book is what made it or broke it for you, the overall message of A Million Little Pieces went straight over your head. For the purposes of this thread, I am taking everything in the book as fact.

[Garth]

[s]Is this the one that Oprah bitched and moaned about?[/s]

No, really.
I haven't had a chance to read it, but I've always wanted to. I'll have to pick it up next time I'm out and give it a good read.

[XIII Heartless]

Jesus Christ, not this book. I read it two years ago for a project. My teacher actually assigned this book for a bunch of freshman!!! Idk...admittedly, it was good. It's a whole 'nother reason I'll never do drugs. As for the legitimacy of it...who knows, who really cares?