A Million Little Pieces - Page 6

SuzeQuze · #76 01-16-2006, 09:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dissention

Thanks, it was a good read. That's essentially how I feel, though I did get a chuckle out of "And now, writing my own memoirs, I know God is in the truth."

And did you hear what Oprah just picked for her new selection? Elie Wiesel's "Night." I found that to be particularly amusing.

Well according to Amazon "Night" is a novel taken from Wiesel's life, he didn't say it was all factual. That's all I know about it so I wonder, why do you find the choice amusing?

Jyqm · #77 01-17-2006, 05:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuzeQuze

Well according to Amazon "Night" is a novel taken from Wiesel's life, he didn't say it was all factual. That's all I know about it so I wonder, why do you find the choice amusing?

Not to speak for Josh, but "novels" don't really get much more autobiographical than Night. So the irony/amusing part is that Oprah's newest pick is now a work that's labelled as "fiction" but which is very firmly rooted in real events, as opposed to her last pick, a work labelled as "nonfiction" that ended up being not quite that.

EDIT: Also, for everyone's reading pleasure, here's a bunch of letters to the editor from today's New York Times. Lots of different takes on the issue of A Million Little Pieces and some interesting points made: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/17/op...l17memoir.html

EDIT #2: And here's another article from today's Times about Oprah's choice of Night. Wiesel mentions that he gets angry when people refer to the book as a "novel." As always, I find these categories and their implications and people's reactions to them to be infinitely fascinating: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/16/bo...cnd-oprah.html

EDIT #3: The Times just can't get enough Frey today. Here's an article by in-house lit critic Michiko Kakutani that looks at Pieces as an embodiment of American culture's obsession with relativism and subjectivity over objective truth. Some very interesting comparisons to the Bush administration, television pundits and postmodernism, but I wish Kakutani had also examined the issue from the decline-of-fiction perspective: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/17/books/17kaku.html

gldstwmn · #78 01-26-2006, 01:25 PM

Just a heads up, Frey will be on Oprah this afternoon. It should be interesting.

dissention · #79 01-26-2006, 02:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

Just a heads up, Frey will be on Oprah this afternoon. It should be interesting.

It's going to be him, Oprah, and his publisher. Expect nothing but damage control and spin.

macfanken · #80 01-26-2006, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dissention

It's going to be him, Oprah, and his publisher. Expect nothing but damage control and spin.

I hear Oprah regrets supporting him on Larry King recently and is not very happy... sounds like Oprah will be doing damage control for Oprah... and feeding him to the sharks.

Brwn_eyes0511 · #81 01-26-2006, 02:26 PM

CALLING RANDY...

I know you don't post often, but I thought you should ring in here! You DO work in books dear...

dissention · #82 01-26-2006, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by macfanken

I hear Oprah regrets supporting him on Larry King recently and is not very happy... sounds like Oprah will be doing damage control for Oprah... and feeding him to the sharks.

Really? Where did you hear that? I may tune in after all.

Brwn_eyes0511 · #83 01-26-2006, 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dissention

Really? Where did you hear that? I may tune in after all.

ummmmmmmm........

Quote:

Originally Posted by macfanken

on Larry King recently

dissention · #84 01-26-2006, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brwn_eyes0511

ummmmmmmm........

Ummmmmmm...

"Oprah regrets supporting him on Larry King recently..."

He's talking about when she called in to Larry King to support him, bub.

Brwn_eyes0511 · #85 01-26-2006, 02:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dissention

Ummmmmmm...

"Oprah regrets supporting him on Larry King recently..."

He's talking about when she called in to Larry King to support him, bub.

Ohhh my mistake. I read it wrong..oopsy!

macfanken · #86 01-26-2006, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dissention

Really? Where did you hear that? I may tune in after all.

i just saw something on msnbc... saying OPRAH is *not* happy. They showed a little clip... she looked a little pissed.

dissention · #87 01-26-2006, 02:38 PM

From People:

http://people.aol.com/people/article...153155,00.html

Oprah Confronts James Frey

Oprah Winfrey made a stunning reversal on Thursday, confronting James Frey about his memoir of drug and alcohol addiction, A Million Little Pieces, and telling him that she felt "duped" by the book that she helped launch onto the bestseller lists.

"It is difficult for me to talk to you because I really feel duped ... but more importantly I feel that you betrayed millions of readers," Winfrey says to Frey, during the live-to-tape show, and asks why the writer "felt the need to lie," the Associated Press reports.

A Million Little Pieces hit stores in 2003 and enjoyed only moderate sales, then became the second bestselling title of last year, after Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, once Winfrey touted it as her book club pick in September.

The high of the book's commercial success came to a crashing end on Jan. 8, however, when the Smoking Gun Web site published a report about Frey's accounts, saying that the author embellished, and even invented, some of his material.

In a surprise call into Larry King Live while Frey was a guest, Winfrey called the criticism "much ado about nothing," and said: "What is relevant is that he was a drug addict ... and stepped out of that history to be the man he is today and to take that message to save other people and allow them to save themselves."

But Winfrey says now that she regrets making that call. "I left the impression that the truth is not important," she says on her show.

In his interview with King, Frey acknowledged he had embellished certain parts of the book but characterized the changes as minor.

gldstwmn · #88 01-26-2006, 02:40 PM

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/book....ap/index.html

Oprah to author: 'I really feel duped'
James Frey upbraided by talk show host

Thursday, January 26, 2006; Posted: 11:57 a.m. EST (16:57 GMT)

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Oprah Winfrey challenged author James Frey over his disputed memoir, asking him on a live telecast of her show Thursday to explain why he "felt the need to lie."

"It is difficult for me to talk to you because I really feel duped ... but more importantly I feel that you betrayed millions of readers," Winfrey said to Frey, who wrote the hugely popular "A Million Little Pieces."

Frey's story of substance abuse and recovery became one of the best-selling books of 2005 after Winfrey named it to her book club last fall, with countless addicts citing it as inspiration. It was originally published in 2003.

The memoir began to unravel earlier this month when an investigative piece on The Smoking Gun Web site (www.thesmokinggun.com) challenged some of the facts in the book, including Frey's assertion that he once spent three months in prison.

Frey, 36, appeared on CNN's "Larry King Live" show after The Smoking Gun story appeared, and Winfrey phoned in her support for him and for the book, calling the allegations against Frey "much ado about nothing."

"What is relevant is that he was a drug addict ... and stepped out of that history to be the man he is today and to take that message to save other people and allow them to save themselves," Winfrey said in the surprise call two weeks ago.

But Winfrey, who has been widely criticized, even by e-mailers on her Web site, for her apparent indifference to the controversy, said Thursday that she regretted making that call.

"I left the impression that the truth is not important," she said.

Frey acknowledged to King that he had embellished parts of the book, and he told Winfrey Thursday that the same demons that fueled his addictions caused him to mischaracterize himself.

"I made a mistake," Frey told Winfrey on Thursday.

Frey's acknowledgments have not hurt sales so far, with both "A Million Little Pieces" and its sequel, "My Friend Leonard," high on best seller lists. His publisher, Doubleday, said last week that Frey was writing a brief author's note for future editions of "A Million Little Pieces."