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Did you see this?
http://tv.yahoo.com/news/ap/20060126/11
"In a stunning switch from dismissive to disgusted, Oprah Winfrey took on one of her chosen authors, James Frey, accusing him on live television of lying about "A Million Little Pieces" and letting down the many fans of his memoir of addiction and recovery. "
My favorite line is towards the end:
"Winfrey did not unleash publishing's version of the death penalty: revoking her endorsement, a devastating and unprecedented action. Only once before has she turned, relatively mildly, on a book club pick: In 2001, she withdrew her invitation for Jonathan Franzen, author of "The Corrections," to appear on her show after the novelist expressed ambivalence over her endorsement." *SNORT*
I have mixed feelings about Oprah's Book Club. Yes, anything that gets people reading is a good thing (opps! I channeled Martha Stewart for an instant!). My library director believes that most people want to be told what to read -- no, not a director order, "Read THIS, you Cretin!" -- but they like easy choices. That's why the themed book displays (eye-catching poster with related books) I put up at the library have to be refilled everyday. Oprah's endorsements aren't any different from my choices for the displays. It's just that her opinion effects things on a much grander scale.
But, I'm stubborn. I don't like to be told what to do, or what to read. Oprah's choices of "touchy/feely" inspirational books aren't my taste either. Plus, I'm not an Oprah fan. (sorry, please don't flame me!) So, I found Franzen's ambivalence highly amusing -- and her response of uninviting him to the show is hysterical! Of course, she had every right. It's HER book club (His book "Corrections" is still on her list - he was just uninvited to the show and didn't get a party). To his credit, when Franzen realized that he'd unintentionally insulted one of the most powerful individuals on the planet, he immediately started back peddling -- Opps, I mean he felt terrible -- and wrote Oprah a letter of apology. According to reports, Oprah didn't reply.
So, what did Oprah's move reveal? Well...IMHO it comes across as: "I really, really liked the book...but because the author doesn't admire my literary choices, leap up & down at the thought of my logo on his book jacket, and fear my power to make or break an individual, I've decided to cancel the party. Pop those balloons and send back the pony. And, all of you readers - go back to your National Enquirers and TV Guides."
Ouch!
But, I do believe it's a good thing (Damn it Martha, get out of my head!) that Oprah took lying author James Frey to task. Why in the world didn't the man just call his book, "fiction based on fact"? The stuff he lied about are of public record. Surely he "knew" the truth would eventually come out? And just out of morbid curiosity, why did he agree to go back on her show for the "whoopin'"? If I was him, I would have crawled under a rock and not come out again until Milli Vanilli made it back into the Top 40.
January 27 2006, 19:38:03 UTC 6 years ago
I like Oprah, but I won't flame you casue I love you. Did you see the show yesterday? I watched some of it. She was brutal to him.
I know I will probably get flamed out the ass here, but, um, I just don't see the big deal about this. It's his book. It's his right to say what he wants.
I think I would have a different opinion about the 'fabrications' if the person was a big celebrity or important politician or something. But this guy is just some writer (no offense to writers). He embellished to make it more interesting. Should he have classified it as fiction instead of a 'memoir'. I guess so, but I'm of the opinion of 'who cares' if you find the book enjoyable and you get something out of it?
Uh oh. I've probably just gotten myself kicked out of the
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January 28 2006, 04:55:58 UTC 6 years ago
I agree that memoirs are allowed a lot more artistic license than an autobiography. Most memoirs seem to be more of a "Hey! Look how deep I am!" collection of thoughts, feelings and (often faulty) memories.
But it is still MHO that if Frey wasn't going to make it clear in the book that many of the "facts" weren't correct, he should have fessed up when Oprah and other interviewers started asking pointed question -- not because he owed anyone an explanation, but to protect his own credibility.
January 27 2006, 20:52:26 UTC 6 years ago
As for James Frey, I think he was as much a victim of marketing as anything else. The publisher thought the book would sell better if it were billed as a memoir rather than fiction, so the label was chosen.
As for memoirs not being fully fact, that is the way with memoirs. I can show you passages in Company Aytch that couldn't possibly have happened the way they were described. When a book about one's experiences is written de facto, that sort of change happens.
And I agree with
January 27 2006, 21:02:48 UTC 6 years ago
It's funny I am in the process of writing a story losely based on my so called life. But, I'm not planning should it ever get published to call it truth at all. Sarcasm is an option in this book, and no real names will be used. Oh and should The Oprah want to feature it.....ha thanks but no thanks....save the pony and party favors for some other sucker who wants to be exploited.
Really what I cannot believe is that Frey went back on the show. The parts I caught showed him sitting there head down, why didn't she just put him in the corner with a nice dunce cap on? It would have served the same purpose I think. Did he say anything at all the whole show? I as Dee said would have found the nearest rock and never come out!
(Sorry if this makes no sense at all. I was trying too, I really was.)
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January 27 2006, 23:46:17 UTC 6 years ago
Anonymous
January 28 2006, 01:38:04 UTC 6 years ago
We're all writers at one level or another, we understand that the craft automatically invokes the right to a bit of creative license. I had a newspaper article written about me once, after I painted Disney characters encircled about a homely concrete well-cover in my front yard - hey, I was living in a small town in the south, I was bored, and at least it wasn't a car on concrete blocks. Point is, this tiny-town reporter wildly embellished my accomplishments & talents, and simply made up what my ho-hum life didn't inspire, then he put me on the front page! *blush* After working for my hometown newspaper, I discovered it was all "normal".
As my friends can attest, if I were to write my memoirs, it would have to be marketed as fiction - no one would ever believe such bizarreties truly happened to one unremarkable woman, and that anyone could be as naive as I! Yes, it would stand up as non-fiction to any of Oprah's scathing remarks and her hoard of researchers, but I'm not sure I would - I'd be hiding under the rock with the rest of you all - better get a bigger rock. (btw Dee, remember I told you about my online-dating experience, and the guy who'd driven his wife into the river? I've moved ahead one space - this time, the guy they've matched me with is a Funeral Director! Appeals directly to my dark sense of humor …this could be for a fun chapter for my book.)
What kind of trouble would I get into if I published my book as fiction, and O found out it was *gasp!* true … Any resemblance to folks and freaks living and/or dead is purely intentional -
I certainly understand Mr. Frey's changing of certain facts, such as how Lilly killed herself. He SAID he changed facts, obviously to protect others from their own devastating memories and inquisitors.
As for Oprah, if she has issues with the memoir genre (nicely defined, wolfma & moro), she could stick to writing and pushing her own and show us poor sports how it should be done. Just what is it, moro, with LeRoy?! THAT is a freak of literary nature - "he" doesn't even exist! O does seem to be out for warm fuzzy strokes now: from her website (we all know what it is) you can read her conversations with her journalist guests - Richard Cohen sucked up nicely, as did Frank Rich. And Roy Peter Clark. Maureen Doud doesn't think Frey is worthy of "the Oprah seal of approval". And Stanley Crouch calls her "the queen of goodwill in the United States". Joel Stein called Frey a weasel. Keep a bucket handy to hold the contents of your stomach …
Wonder if she's thoroughly investigated Elie Wiesel (not to be confused with Frey the Weasel). What a can of Nazi worms she'd open if HE were caught exaggerating. Egad.
Catt *** apologies for the dissertation ***
January 28 2006, 04:58:00 UTC 6 years ago
Anonymous
January 28 2006, 05:18:58 UTC 6 years ago
Keep your fingers crossed - I do hope to meet this man. He seems very kind, and I can use more of that in my life. AND he swears he never brings his work home with him.
Catt
January 28 2006, 05:38:31 UTC 6 years ago
"he swears he never brings his work home with him"
*snort*
Well, I'd certainly hope not!
January 28 2006, 02:31:01 UTC 6 years ago
On that first show, she asked him about the people and events - not just his accounting of them - and he answered in terms of confirming things, stating that things happened the way he wrote them. Wouldn't that have been the time for him to address the changes or elaborations he made to his story, when she asked about "the real Laura", etc.?
In this follow-up show, she asked him again about answers he had given the first time around and he now divulged how his story differed from the true events. Why didn't he say so on the first show if it was no big deal? Well, Frey himself seemed really confused and beaten down. I can see where it grew out his control. I mean, if he hadn't been chosen for Oprah's Book Club, it is highly unlikely this would have happened, right?
emteee
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January 28 2006, 04:56:53 UTC 6 years ago
The Smoking Gun expose http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/01
Oprah: . . . . So first of all, I wanted to start with The Smoking Gun report titled, "The Man Who Conned Oprah" and I want to know—were they right?
James: I think most of what they wrote was pretty accurate. Absolutely.
Oprah: Okay.
James: I think they did a good job detailing some of the discrepancies between some of the actual facts of the events…
Oprah: What [The Smoking Gun] said was that you lied about the length of time that you spent in jail. How long were you in jail?
James: [The Smoking Gun was] right about that. I was in [jail] for a few hours.
Oprah: Not 87 days?
James: Correct.
Also, the New York Times wrote, "Mr. Frey has previously said he offered "A Million Little Pieces" to publishers first as a work of fiction, then as a memoir. But he has also said that in changing the book's designation from fiction to nonfiction, he did not change anything in it."
Additionally, "Mr. Frey's second book, "My Friend Leonard," published by Penguin's Riverhead Books, has also been a best seller. It includes a disclaimer that some names and details have been altered, but makes no mention that some events — like the opening anecdote, which takes place during a jail term that it is now clear Mr. Frey never served — are complete fiction."
I just think it is all very interesting!
emteee
January 28 2006, 05:05:23 UTC 6 years ago
By Seth Mnookin. He has a fascinating view. Here's one passage I especially like:
"Unfortunately, because A Million Little Pieces—one of the best-selling books about drug addiction ever written—has been trumpeted as an unflinching, real-life look into the world of a drug addict, it has helped to shape people's notions about drug abuse. Ironically, the very abundance of its clichés has likely helped make it a runaway best seller: People, after all, like having their suspicions confirmed. For nonaddicts, Pieces reinforces the still dangerously prevalent notion that it's easy to spot a drug addict or an alcoholic—they're the ones bleeding from holes in their cheeks or getting beaten down by the police or doing hard time with killers and rapists. For those struggling with their own substance-abuse issues, Pieces sends the message that unless you've reached the depths Frey describes, you don't have anything to worry about—you're a Fraud. And if you do have a problem, you don't need to necessarily get treatment or look to others for support; all you need to do is "hold on." In building up a false bogeyman—the American recovery movement's supposed reliance on the notion of "victimhood"—Frey has set himself up as the one, truth-telling savior. In fact, it seems clear that Frey would have been well-served by taking the kind of unflinchingly honest look at his own life that most recovery programs demand."
You can check it out at http://www.slate.com/id/2134203/
Anonymous
January 28 2006, 06:00:46 UTC 6 years ago
Oh, Oh! This post, right after The Smoking Gun article came out, surprised me, though it shouldn't have: "... An odd little factoid ... I dropped a note on the Oprah's Book Club board, bringing this issue into the conversation so all those who are reading the book can at least make up their own minds. Of course, the post was removed in a very short time. Doesn't anyone want to even pretend to be open minded anymore?" [I left out a barely-related line - full text on site below.]
Another poster lamented: "... And when all is said and done, what personally offends me about this whole incident is how it is yet another example of a fake reality being embraced and being fed to people... And people not caring too much." I disagree, people do care; even when they insist it doesn't matter whether or not he lied, they're making a strong statement.
For those who can bear to read more, here's a buttload of comments post-TSG:
http://www.kottke.org/06/01/james-frey-f
Now, off the topic and onto AR - catsplay, your Bath had me on the edge of squeeing ... and wordplay/Jen, I nearly spewed my Oreos from nervousness waiting for AR to leave the theater, and cheered out loud ... Hey! You guys aren't contagious are you? Do I have some sort of bloggie AR virus from hanging out here?
Catt ... waiting for a *snort* ... checking for *cough* ... do I have a fever? ...