As you might have heard by now, the SmokingGun has done some stellar investigative reporting to reveal the fact that James Frey's Oprah-Book-Club-induced best-seller, A Million Little Pieces, is "filled with fabrications, falsehoods..."
CNN has reported that the publisher, Random House, will honor refunds of the book.
Although the author's website has been down for a while, he did post earlier in the day with this poetic piece:
So let the haters hate, let the doubters doubt, I stand by my book, and my
life, and I won't dignify this bullshit with any sort of further response.
I have to agree with him on this one. Although I blogged earlier how his arrogance has gotten him in trouble in the past, in this case he is 100% corret.
Big deal. It is a memoir, filed under non-fiction and, yet, always considered a grey-area when it comes to the validity of the details. Many authors of this genre have taken similar liberties (though some might mention this in the foreword). If David Sedaris or Augustin Burroughs or another modern-day author has not done the same, I would be surprised. Remember, the SmokingGun is accusing Frey of lying about his police record - that he claimed it was worse than it truly is!!! I remembers the day when people used to lie to make their police records look better!
The bottom line is, if you are one of the silly people who purchased the book *only* cause it had a big-O sticker on the front and reminded you of Bermuda- the you deserve a refund. Not because you were duped, but because you are a poser, and should be spending your money on slap-bracelets and white-washed denim. However, if you enjoyed the work as a modern-day better-than-average piece of literature, then shut-up & enjoy.
UPDATE #1: Random House is NOT offering refunds.
UPDATE #2: Frey was on Larry King Live tonite. Basically, Frey repeated many times that this is the nature of a memoir- its a subjective recreation of events based on one's recollection. King then repeated many times that its filed under non-fiction. Frey says he "stands behind the general truth of the book." He also points out that 18 out of 432 pages are under dispute. The Big-O called in and offered her support to James, although she feels that everyword in a memoir is assumed to be true. What a tool.
UPDATE #3: Good news!! MLP is the #1 bestseller on both Amazon and BN right now. MFL is #4 and #5 currently.
And now look what she's done to Eli Weisel's NIGHT. If I was an author I would completely rethink being chosen by Oprah. Sure it means selling millions of copies, but does Eli Weisel really need the money? Wouldn't he prefer his dignity?
http://entertainment.tv.yahoo.com/entnews/ap/20060117/113754744003.html
NYT reports that james frey sold 3 million copies of his book in the months following oprahs choice of his book.
my publishing source hasnt found out how much JF gets per sale, but using the follwing formula you can calculate it.
3,000,000 x X = $$$(lots of PSPs)
where X is the amount he gets per sale.