A MILLION LITTLE PIECES by James Frey

Finished Tu 12/11/18

I reread this book because of  a discussion at last months book club meeting. 'The Church Lady' attacked the book and brought up all the controversy between James Frey and Oprah. I didn't say anything, but I remembered how much that I liked the book. This is my third time through the book since Feb., 2006.

Originally, Frey tried to sell the book as fiction, but his publisher said that they couldn't sell it, so they changed it to a memoir. Some of the details were faked, but the thrust of the work is still very compelling. He embellished his criminal history and that his girlfriend at Hazelton committed suicide.

He has written several more novels, and I am getting his book about the second coming of the messiah, 'THE FINAL TESTAMENT OF THE HOLY BIBLE'. Directly after 'A MILLION LITTLE PIECES' he wrote a book about Leonard, one of his friends that he met at Hazelton.

Notes On The Book-

The opening pages of the book are absolutely riveting. James awakes in the back of a commercial airline missing all of his front teeth, a hole through his cheek, and covered in blood. He has no memory of what happened, how he got on the plane, or where he is headed.

Soon after he gets into the rehab center he has four root canals done without any form of anesthetic. I will never feel the same about a dental visit again.

'The Fury' is what he calls his overpowering need for drugs and alcohol- "Anything to Stop The Fury".

When his mother and father join him for family therapy, it's revealed that when he was a young child he was always screaming and crying. The family had little money and it wasn't for a few years that they were able to afford a competent doctor and he found that James had severe ear infections and this was causing excruciating pain. Had the infections been addressed sooner, would James be addiction free?

The book is a refutation of the philosophy of AA. The program is only 17% successful, and this is only one year after leaving the program. Many people might relapse after one year or two years.  AA believes that 'There Is No Other Way' to combat addiction, and when someone suggests that we tweak 'the plan' or try something else, the response is always 'There Is No Other Way'.

James Frey combats his addiction by fiercely facing his desires and just refusing to give in to them. This approach is judged impossible by AA, but Frey is able to do it. I would imagine that an adherent of AA would just say that his addiction is just waiting to reassert, and even if he lives to be 110 and never takes another drink or drug, they would say that that he still hadn't beaten his disease because it was still there, waiting to come back. This point of view is absurd.

Link to James Frey's page at wikipedia-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Frey

The book's page at wikipedia-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Million_Little_Pieces