A Million Little Lies?

I just saw this guy on Oprah last week. She absolutely loved his book. But, I suppose there is some reason why I never bought it even though it has almost made it into my Costco basket a number of times. The Smoking Gun says that A Million Little Pieces is filled with a million little lies!

Three months ago, in what the talk show host termed a 'radical departure,' Winfrey announced that 'A Million Little Pieces,' author James Frey's nonfiction memoir of his vomit-caked years as an alcoholic, drug addict, and criminal, was her latest selection for the world's most powerful book club.

In an October 26 show entitled 'The Man Who Kept Oprah Awake At Night,' Winfrey hailed Frey's graphic and coarse book as 'like nothing you've ever read before. Everybody at Harpo is reading it. When we were staying up late at night reading it, we'd come in the next morning saying, 'What page are you on?'' In emotional filmed testimonials, employees of Winfrey's Harpo Productions lauded the book as revelatory, with some choking back tears. When the camera then returned to a damp-eyed Winfrey, she said, 'I'm crying 'cause these are all my Harpo family so, and we all loved the book so much.'

But a six-week investigation by The Smoking Gun reveals that there may be a lot less to love about Frey's runaway hit, which has sold more than 3.5 million copies and, thanks to Winfrey, has sat atop The New York Times nonfiction paperback best seller list for the past 15 weeks. Next to the latest Harry Potter title, Nielsen BookScan reported Friday, Frey's book sold more copies in the U.S. in 2005--1.77 million--than any other title, with the majority of that total coming after Winfrey's selection.

Police reports, court records, interviews with law enforcement personnel, and other sources have put the lie to many key sections of Frey's book. The 36-year-old author, these documents and interviews show, wholly fabricated or wildly embellished details of his purported criminal career, jail terms, and status as an outlaw 'wanted in three states.'

The Smoking Gun must have done extensive research because a) they have a special web page design just for this article b) it is six freakin' pages long. The sad thing is that even if this book is found to be totally false, it sounds like a captivating story. It still could have been great fiction and the acclaim may have been just as great. We'll have to see what Oprah says - though I guess it doesn't matter. She already made him a millionaire.