James Frey:
Have you ever become so engrossed in a book that you HAD to read it, not just because it was there, but because it pulled you in, made you understand a side of something that you had no experience of before...and then when it is finished you cry, because it was so sad, because what you thought would be a happy ending turns out to be not as happy as you had hoped it would be, and more so, because you wished beyond all wishes, that it was not finished.
When I first saw the book A Million Little Pieces in the hands of a girl who I met in Australia, I was drawn in by the pretty cover, by the colours, by sparkley bits, by everything, at the time I was nearing the end of my trip and also reading a really shite book which I had been given on a Greyhound bus by someone who said I looked bored, maybe that was why I wanted this big colourful sparkley book, I wanted it, she was going on and on about how great it was and I was looking at my shite book willing it to turn into something else, something new....the book that was in Zoe's hands.
It was $40AU I didn't have this to spare on a book...(I did however have this to spare for clothes etc but shhh, we all know about my addictions!!).
The minute I got home I went on Amazon and bought it, ooh I waited for it to arrive along with the other books I had ordered but this one, this one was the special one. It came about a week later (yes I waited a week instead of paying through the teeth in a shop...I had been backpacking, I was poor, I am poor!) when it came I was half way through in a few days (I only really read before bed), I was staying up till 1am and 2am reading it, getting stuck in, imagining myself in his shoes, imagining everything, crying all the time I was reading it, not like proper assed bawling but tears were coming out, willingly!
James Frey was a young alcoholic and drug addict, he had almost killed himself because of it aged only 23, he dismissed the 12 Steps Programme which the AA is ruled by because he didn't believe in any god, they told him he would never succeed, he knew he would have to, or he would die, his friend Leonard who he met in Rehab made sure of it by funding everything he needed or ever would need. His friend Leonard saved his life on more than one occasion. That and the thoughts of being able to be with his girl at the end of it all. Only the happy ending doesn't happen as it should have, or maybe it did, only years later.
When I got to the end I was so sad, I cried for about an hour, just thinking, what's next?? What happened next?? What can I read now that will live up to it?? I didn't read anything for about three weeks, because I had gotten so attached to it that I couldn't possibly see myself getting that stuck into anything else.
Then I got an auto email from Amazon, telling me about My Friend Leonard.
It's the end of the story, it's just as good though not as harrowing, not as sad, not as hard to deal with when you imagine yourself in his shoes. This is the one where life eventually comes good for James. And I am so glad. Glad that I read this book. Glad that I know that what happened to him will never happen to me. Glad that even though I may not have an amazing existence, I still know that it is better than one day in his life before rehab, I know I will never go down that road, though some people who I used to know have, and people who I now know did before they knew me.
It reminded me of my friend who will go un-named, my friend who came here to get away from the shitty life they led elsewhere, my friend who even though he had been bad and broken the law and been an addict and a total asshole, had come good and was and still is as shiny as a button.
4.21-en
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Comments
What a great post. Fair play.
I'll have to look into getting those books now...
Posted by: Darren | December 19, 2008 1:49 PM
Thank you, you should, they are great, and amazon do a special deal if you buy both books at the same time as far as I know!
Posted by: Babs
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December 19, 2008 3:15 PM
Sounds an awful lot like: "A head full of blue" by Nick Johnstone...
Posted by: TUG | December 19, 2008 3:50 PM
I've read both and the only comparison that I can make between them and the other books which I have read by ex or recovering addicts such as "A Piece Of Cake" by Cupcake Brown, "Stuart" by Alex Masters, "Drinking a Love Story" by Caroline Knapp etc is that they are stories, by or about people who were addicts or are recovering addicts who have come good, they led a shitty existence and now no longer do, apart from Stuart, who ended it all before he could ever be completely better.
Posted by: Babs
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December 19, 2008 5:31 PM
Yeah I read it and it was a good read.
There is a fair bit of controversy about it though, Google him and find out.
Posted by: Gordon | December 22, 2008 11:47 AM
I know all about the controversy, about some parts being made up, but he admitted to it anyway so not really that controversial at all really.
Posted by: Babs
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December 22, 2008 12:13 PM
Oh, you just brought me back. OI read that a few years ago and loved it. His writing is just searing, I remember flinching with pain as I read it (particularly the scene in the dentist's). *shudder*
The controversy surroundning the book did kinda ruin it for me though - his exaggerating, lying to Oprah etc.
Still, it was a great read and the cover is super pretty!
Thanks for reminding me of it. :)
Posted by: Clare | December 31, 2008 12:44 AM
His exact statement was this: Everything in this book is true, although sequences have been rearranged and conversations recreated, often on the basis of subsequent interviews".
I never saw the Oprah interview but I knew all about the controversy before I had read it. It still dragged me in and made me not want to let go. If you haven't read my friend Leonard you should (I got it on Amazon for £4.50 - new and used section).
Posted by: Babs | December 31, 2008 12:43 PM