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Title: A Million Little Pieces by James Frey ISBN: 0-385-50775-5 Publisher: Nan A. Talese Pub. Date: 15 April, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.91 (118 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Great Book - unless you're Republican
Comment: Not to be the type to stereotype, but most Republicans will hate this book. It's not political in anyway. It's about drug abuse. Drug abuse is a non-partisan embrace of society. I've just noticed that Republicans tend to be a little more in the closet about their drug abuse than the Independents, Democrats, and Reform Party members. While people of all parties will be equally entertained by Rikki Travolta's "MY FRACTURED LIFE" because of its off kilter bent on nudging everyone's values, James Frey's "A MILLION LITTLE PIECES" takes a definitive hate all things moral stand that will surely offend all the Republicans I know. It's a good book, it's just not bipartisan.
Rating: 1
Summary: BADLY-WRITTEN BILE, LACED WITH SELF-IMPORTANCE
Comment: Stylistically awful, kind of pretend-punchy Hemmingway meets Elmore Leonard (but without the talent), with the most irritating syntax and repetition. Market-driven drivel, really. The narrator comes across as a brat. There's no interior subtlety. No real inner world beyond the self-obsessed, self-indulgent anger that drives the narrative. It becomes pretty indigestible by half-way through. I noticed Nan Talese is thanked in the acknowledgements. I guess everyone is entitled to a bad day. Or that even good editors will sell out if the market looks like it gives a green light. This book stinks of the quick buck. Anyway there's nothing it's going to add to the sum total of the world's literature. Bet you any money this Bile Brat-Boy can't come up with a second novel that's any better. (And if the book really is true, it's hard to believe this guy hasn't relapsed by now -- which, one imagines, would make it hard to even get that second novel started.)
Who the hell made the decision to left-justify all the paragraphs? It's an unspeakably annoying habit. Is this the new in-house signal for "groovy cutting edge" in publishing?
I give the book one star, in a sense because the hilariously bad ending, when Frey "Just Says No", is such a classic of bad literature and is worth reading for a belly laugh. But you could do that standing in the bookshop. Try and imagine the Hollywood violins, amping up the emotions, in this scene in the film version of this book, which you can be sure will follow.
If you want the real goods, a truly beautiful masterpiece on the addicted soul, I suggest "Candy" by Luke Davies is the one to read. It's an extraordinary and moving book. Deeply affecting, and we identify deeply, even those of us who have no experience of addiction. There's nothing really "moving" about Frey's limp memoir.
Rating: 3
Summary: An Addict Replies:
Comment: I am reading. I am reading James Frey's book, A Million Little Pieces, & I am angry. Really. Pissed. Off.
Because this spoiled little rich Boy, this spoiled Brat who has Parents. Parents that care. Parents that returned from Tokyo. Just to make sure their bad spoiled Boy gets the Care he needs. In the Hospital. For which they spend much Money. They have spent Money on him before. How do I know? I know.
I know.
Because.
He tells us.
He says: I am an Alcoholic. I am a Criminal, & I have been an Addict. And an Alcoholic. For 10 years. Since I was 13.
But this spoiled Boy spent at least 4 of those Years. At least 4, he tells us. In College. College where he met a beautiful Girl. A beautiful Girl who loved him too. Even tho he was an Addict. And an Alcoholic. And who paid for the Boy to be in College to meet the Girl while he was an Alcoholic? His Parents. His loving Parents who cry. But love him. Even when he smokes Crack. Even when he sniffs Glue. Even when he jumps Bail. His Parents love Him and cry. And pay.
And this Boy has Friends. Friends who call the Brother. Friends who care if the Boy gets well. Friends who visit on Sundays, bearing Gifts. Friends who don't want to see the Boy walking bare-assed around the Hospital. Which his Parents are paying for.
Some Addicts don't have Loving Parents. Some addicts don't have Friends who care about them & come visit on Sundays. Some Addicts had to spend their time in the Hospital walking around bare-assed because no one cared. Cared if they had clothes. Cared if they had toothpaste. Cared if they lived. Cared if they died.
Some Addicts didn't have the luxury of 4 Years of College. Some Addicts didn't get to party while the Loving Parents paid for it. Some Parents don't cry. They just throw you out. Like Garbage. Like Sewage. They call the Cops. They don't care if you go to the Hospital. They don't care if you get well. They just don't want to see you again. Only, you don't have any Friends to tell this to. No one to hug you while you cry. No one to push away because you feel Vulnerable. No one. Period.
So, spoiled James Frey, cry. Cry for what a Bad Boy you are. Cry because your Mama cried for you. Cry because you are an Addict and a Criminal. Just remember while you cry: some Addicts never had no crying Mama. Some Addicts can get clean without. Sturm. Und. Drang. Some Addicts have to do it. All by themselves. Because. No one cared.
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Title: Dry: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs ISBN: 0312272057 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Running with Scissors: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs ISBN: 031242227X Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach ISBN: 0393050939 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc ISBN: 0684863871 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: February, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Only Girl in the Car: A Memoir by Kathy Dobie ISBN: 0385318804 Publisher: Dial Pr Pub. Date: 04 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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