Monday, January 09, 2006
Book Review Follow-up
This is big news around the blogosphere today.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0104061jamesfrey1.html
I would refer you to a quote from my original review of the book:
"The characters that he is surrounded by in rehab are really too good to be true. So good in fact, I wonder if there were some embellished aspects in places."
Parts of it really didn't sit right with me, but I'm cool with taking SOME artistic license and juicing it up a little. The question is how far did he go? I'm still digesting this expose though. I may comment more later. This also gives a clean post to comment about the book on.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0104061jamesfrey1.html
I would refer you to a quote from my original review of the book:
"The characters that he is surrounded by in rehab are really too good to be true. So good in fact, I wonder if there were some embellished aspects in places."
Parts of it really didn't sit right with me, but I'm cool with taking SOME artistic license and juicing it up a little. The question is how far did he go? I'm still digesting this expose though. I may comment more later. This also gives a clean post to comment about the book on.
Comments:
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That's hilarious!
I haven't read this yet, and am now less inclined to do so... i agree that memoirs can take some artistic license, but come on!
I haven't read this yet, and am now less inclined to do so... i agree that memoirs can take some artistic license, but come on!
# posted by 
: 5:45 PM
: 5:45 PM
I'm glad you put this on your blog. My curiousity was up when I heard this story line on the radio and was unable to listen. Now that I think about, the part where he goes out to look for his gal seems a little over the top and heroic. I guess he wanted to make his life look like it could be in a movie!:)
F.W.
F.W.
# posted by : 9:08 PM
: 9:08 PM
Yeah, I think this is pretty intriguing. It comes out at the same time as the JT Leroy thing and I've also learned that Augusten Burroughs is being sued by his foster-parents (I think, or something like that) about the way they are portrayed in his memoirs.
Labeling something as a memoir completely changes everything. You can be a much more pedestrian writer as long as you are writing something sensational that supposedly actually happened to you.
I'm surprised we haven't heard of a counter argument from Frey, or something from Oprah, or something more substantial from the publisher. I tried to visit his (Frey's) website the day this came out and it was down.
Why FW?
Ms. FernsWorth?
Fern Whitney?
FernWorks?
Fernz Wacky?
Labeling something as a memoir completely changes everything. You can be a much more pedestrian writer as long as you are writing something sensational that supposedly actually happened to you.
I'm surprised we haven't heard of a counter argument from Frey, or something from Oprah, or something more substantial from the publisher. I tried to visit his (Frey's) website the day this came out and it was down.
Why FW?
Ms. FernsWorth?
Fern Whitney?
FernWorks?
Fernz Wacky?
Here's a CNN article talking about films in the works related to these literary hoaxes. Also, it says that James Frey is going to be on Larry King tonite.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/books/01/11/film.cons.reut/index.html
I'm starting to get pissed off at all the people who aren't taking this seriously enough. It's different if Augusten Burroughs or Dave Eggers or David Sedaris embellish how crazy their parents are or something of that nature to make their stories funnier or more entertaining, but this would be like finding out that Dave Eggers' parents are alive and well and living it up on a golf course in Florida. Plus the fact that Frey is touting himself as this addiction guru and giving people advice on Oprah. That's completely irresponsible. As I said in my review, I didn't much care for him touting his addiction recovery scheme of kicking it's ass and tempting himself and making the choice not to use. The guy's probably not even an addict. If you can CHOOSE not to do something, then you DON'T have an addiction, asshole. There's a reason it's called an addiction.
I'd like to see some accountability here.
Not to mention the people who are defending the book by saying it's still a good story. Bullshit. In the Smoking Gun story it says that he tried to publish this as fiction and was rejected 17 times. If he ever did get it published, no one would have ever heard of it, no Oprah, no bestseller lists, no movie deal. It'd be out of print in a couple of years and this fucker, who's not that great of a writer, would be a manager at a Ruby Tuesday's.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/books/01/11/film.cons.reut/index.html
I'm starting to get pissed off at all the people who aren't taking this seriously enough. It's different if Augusten Burroughs or Dave Eggers or David Sedaris embellish how crazy their parents are or something of that nature to make their stories funnier or more entertaining, but this would be like finding out that Dave Eggers' parents are alive and well and living it up on a golf course in Florida. Plus the fact that Frey is touting himself as this addiction guru and giving people advice on Oprah. That's completely irresponsible. As I said in my review, I didn't much care for him touting his addiction recovery scheme of kicking it's ass and tempting himself and making the choice not to use. The guy's probably not even an addict. If you can CHOOSE not to do something, then you DON'T have an addiction, asshole. There's a reason it's called an addiction.
I'd like to see some accountability here.
Not to mention the people who are defending the book by saying it's still a good story. Bullshit. In the Smoking Gun story it says that he tried to publish this as fiction and was rejected 17 times. If he ever did get it published, no one would have ever heard of it, no Oprah, no bestseller lists, no movie deal. It'd be out of print in a couple of years and this fucker, who's not that great of a writer, would be a manager at a Ruby Tuesday's.
This is also interesting. From the blog on Frey's website.
http://bigjimindustries.com/news.html
He posts the letter that the Smoking Gun sent him in response to his lawyers letter threatening a lawsuit. He does not dispute any of the quotes that the Smoking Gun attributes to him in their interviews.
It also makes the Smoking Gun's argument for making the interviews on the record instead of off the record since he was threatening legal action they have to defend themselves. I thought that was pretty funny.
http://bigjimindustries.com/news.html
He posts the letter that the Smoking Gun sent him in response to his lawyers letter threatening a lawsuit. He does not dispute any of the quotes that the Smoking Gun attributes to him in their interviews.
It also makes the Smoking Gun's argument for making the interviews on the record instead of off the record since he was threatening legal action they have to defend themselves. I thought that was pretty funny.
More fallout.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/books/01/11/arts.frey.reut/index.html
the publisher is giving refunds if you bought directly from them. If you bought it at a store like most people, they say take it up with them.
Fern, will you try to return your copy whereever you got it? I'd love to see that.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/books/01/11/arts.frey.reut/index.html
the publisher is giving refunds if you bought directly from them. If you bought it at a store like most people, they say take it up with them.
Fern, will you try to return your copy whereever you got it? I'd love to see that.
Wow, I can't believe all this! I can't believe that the publisher will let some people return it! I got mine from Amazon. I've just recently taken a liking to memoirs, though. I hope it won't kill it for me.
F.W.
(one of your guesses was right)
F.W.
(one of your guesses was right)
# posted by : 8:01 PM
: 8:01 PM
Well that Larry King last night was just one big circle jerk with James Frey as the pivot. Seriously, all it was was a staged PR counter-salvo on the part of Frey, his agent, his lawyer, the publishing company, and Oprah.
Larry lobs softballs, nay, tees it up for him for 45 minutes with questions like, "Do you think this will make you starting abusing again?" and repeated questions about if Oprah has called him. Then 3 teenage girls call in to say that they are big fans and love the book and that this controversy is silly. Then, get this, they have his MOM on for the last 15 minutes. His fucking mom, I shit you not. I told Amy, 'I think she's done more drugs in her life than he has.' Then OPRAH CALLS!! Wow, Oprah! The show runs long. Oprah gives her support to James and continues to recommend the book, especially to recovering addicts. Then they segueway to Anderson Cooper and Anderson and Larry have a ridiculous conversation about whether this controversy might actually help sales of the book and Anderson repeatedly tells Larry that that was a "riveting hour of television". Typical CNN pansy-ass pussy-footin bullshit.
It was painfully clear that Larry had not read the book. He tried to compare it to Alan Alda's memoir and his own. Wow, I can't believe I'm watching this.
Frey didn't impress me at all either. His defense was that less than 5% of the total page count of the book is in dispute and that it's a memoir. He actually could have made a decent argument about the memoir genre as creative non-fiction and it's evolution and position in the grey area between fiction and non-fiction. I recalled an argument that Amy and I had about The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston when she read it as autobiography in a class at Penn St. But he didn't really do this, he just kept repeating "It's a memoir. It's an imperfect recollection of my past."
So there you have it, only 5% is in dispute. Nevermind that that 5% is central to the theme of the book that he is a monster and a Criminal. Nevermind that the other 95% can't be proven because he won't release his paperwork from the clinic and the clinic keeps patient confidentiality and conveniently all of his (imaginary)friends at the clinic are all dead. Nevermind that his now proven lies about his criminal past, bring into question his addiction(s). My guess is the dude has never seen crack in his life.
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Larry lobs softballs, nay, tees it up for him for 45 minutes with questions like, "Do you think this will make you starting abusing again?" and repeated questions about if Oprah has called him. Then 3 teenage girls call in to say that they are big fans and love the book and that this controversy is silly. Then, get this, they have his MOM on for the last 15 minutes. His fucking mom, I shit you not. I told Amy, 'I think she's done more drugs in her life than he has.' Then OPRAH CALLS!! Wow, Oprah! The show runs long. Oprah gives her support to James and continues to recommend the book, especially to recovering addicts. Then they segueway to Anderson Cooper and Anderson and Larry have a ridiculous conversation about whether this controversy might actually help sales of the book and Anderson repeatedly tells Larry that that was a "riveting hour of television". Typical CNN pansy-ass pussy-footin bullshit.
It was painfully clear that Larry had not read the book. He tried to compare it to Alan Alda's memoir and his own. Wow, I can't believe I'm watching this.
Frey didn't impress me at all either. His defense was that less than 5% of the total page count of the book is in dispute and that it's a memoir. He actually could have made a decent argument about the memoir genre as creative non-fiction and it's evolution and position in the grey area between fiction and non-fiction. I recalled an argument that Amy and I had about The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston when she read it as autobiography in a class at Penn St. But he didn't really do this, he just kept repeating "It's a memoir. It's an imperfect recollection of my past."
So there you have it, only 5% is in dispute. Nevermind that that 5% is central to the theme of the book that he is a monster and a Criminal. Nevermind that the other 95% can't be proven because he won't release his paperwork from the clinic and the clinic keeps patient confidentiality and conveniently all of his (imaginary)friends at the clinic are all dead. Nevermind that his now proven lies about his criminal past, bring into question his addiction(s). My guess is the dude has never seen crack in his life.
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