“I was going to start this review by gushing, but that changed after Googling for this book and reading some of the news items related to the book and its author. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
___What the book is about: Author James Frey’s true-to-life addiction to crack, leading to a life of crime, and leading to a grueling six weeks he spent battling it (and conquering it) at a rehab center, with the aid of colorful supporting characters, among them another addict named Lilly whom he falls in love with.
___Why the book rocks: It’s written in a grim, gritty, often repetitious first-person point-of-view, but delivers a wallop with its valorous attempt at describing what infinite addiction and infinite rage are like, using finite words.
___The story pulls you into the writer’s head– you become James Frey, you feel as he felt, and experience things as he does while reading the book. And it’s a memoir– meaning it’s all true. (SUPPOSEDLY.)
___Why this book suddenly sucks: Turns out Frey embellished. A lot. Which, you know, is perfectly forgiveable because if adding on to the story aids it, then why not? Well… except for the fact that it’s touted as a non-fiction book. A memoir for goodness’ sake. And for the fact that Frey himself has said numerous times in many interviews that the book is truthful.
___Except investigative website The Smoking Gun has uncovered proof that Frey made up most of his “Criminal” career to make himself look worse than he really was. Crucial events such as his arrest in Ohio aren’t corroborated by actual records. And well, it turns out Frey was originally shopping this book around as fiction and consequently rejected by publishers numerous times, before some rewrites and a major overhaul into a “memoir” got it into Doubleday. Read The Smoking Gun’s loooong exposé on Frey here. (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0104061jamesfrey1.html)
___The reason why it’s such a betrayal? The appeal of the book is precisely in the reader thinking “this actually happened to someone for real.” Once that thought is over-ridden by copious amounts of embellishment, it loses its zest.
___And yet. If simply for the psychological hurdles and the way Frey wrote of the addiction he was dealing with, the book still possesses a power all its own. Of course that’s if you can get past the lies.”
acid42 wrote this review Monday, October 8 2007.
(
reply |
permalink )
