Have You Been Following This?

I don't know if you have read the books "A Million Little Pieces" and "My Friend Leonard" (the sequel) by James Frey, but I did. I couldn't put them down. "A Million Little Pieces" was Oprah's Book Club choice a few month's ago. It's a pretty riveting book about a man who overcomes drug addiction and his experience at rehab.

About a week ago, as you might have heard, it fell under some controversy with some (major)embellishments the writer felt free to take. I first heard this on a media report on TV, and thought, oh come on, leave the poor guy alone. I loved, loved, loved these books! However, when I got home from my trip, I looked online at the Smoking Gun report (it's six pages long!), and there's no question about it, he lied! Make sure you read it if you haven't.

After reading the report, I felt very betrayed. Maybe it's because I take this a little more personally than some, in that, I have a family member that is a recovering alcoholic, and as such, if a book is written as nonfiction, I expect it to be so. Secondly, after reading the Smoking Gun report, you really question the validity of the book in it's entirety.

I think people are saying leave him alone..so what, he embellished. He is still helping others. But, in my opinion..it was major. And seriously, I was a big fan.

Here's my reasoning. At it's basic level, a memoir..a recounting of one's addiction, is what helps others with his/her own addiction. Correct? I am sure most of you aren't familiar with it, but if you look at Alcoholic Anonymous's Big Book most of it is just people recounting their own HONEST tales of addiction.

Many are saying what matters is this book and Frey help people with addiction, and the embellishments don't matter. (Even Oprah has come out and said that!) But addiction at its core is DECEIT. Deceiving oneself, one's family, etc, and it involves among other things, getting honest with oneself...Even James Frey in his book talks about getting honest with his life, not doing certain things, not continuing certain things because they are "dishonest". The message I took from the books was that he evolved in almost an "AA" fashion without an AA approach. By that, I mean, by the end, of "My Friend Leonard", for example, you can almost see the possibility of an acceptance of God whereas at the beginning of "A Million Little Pieces" there was an absolute rejection.

However, now... I have little faith that any of that was true. And I have little faith that that "honest" life that he speaks of is true. I also have doubt that Lilly and Leonard existed(the main characters in the books), or existed in the manner portrayed. I feel betrayed that the feelings that he evoked in me were done under the guise of nonfiction. I have little faith now that he has been sober all this time. So, to those that think that this helps those who are addicted, I disagree. I think it perpetuates the dishonesty associated with addiction, and frankly, I'm disappointed.