A Million Little Pieces (#42; Topic D)

In the media last several days, there were quite a few commentaries on the author of a book, A Million Little Pieces, James Frey. It seems that Frey "embellished" his memoir, which is on his being a drug and alcohol addict, his struggle with the law and with himself, and his rehabilitation and redemption. All these are rather mundane, except that, while others' embellishments tend to accentuate the positive, Frey elected to exaggerate the negative -- in jail for several months instead of a mere three hours in a police station, etc. Nothing wrong with that either, except that the book was picked up by Oprah Winfrey's book club, and it became a best-seller. A former newspaperman reported these and other "falsehoods" in his blog, accusing Frey of being "dishonest and unethical." The book's publisher was also faulted for not engaging in fact-checking. When similar charges were levied against Oprah, she rightly claimed that she was not in the business of authenticating a book's every detail; only the message -- in this case, redemption -- counts. Frankly, I find all these charges of "fiction" puzzling. Can any event, let alone a life of many years, be reported with complete objectivity? unabridged without any omission? uncensored without any "embellishment"? How come there are many versions of any famous person's biography? Being a cynic, I think Frey's critics are simply jealous of a fellow writer's attaining fame and fortune.
Posted at 9:48 pm, Friday, January 20, 2006