And The Truth is Revealed...A Million Little Lies

Like many of you, I read James Frey's "memoire", A MILLION LITTLE PIECES. Like many of you, I was completely blown away by this man's story.

I found myself having a great deal of sympathy for James and for anybody battling a drug or alcohol addiction. I went into an Au Bon Pain Cafe one night, just after having finished the book. There were these three absolutely wasted people in there using the restrooms. Actually, the reason I went in was to use the restroom, myself. Well, these people took up residence in both of the restrooms, regardless of the prescribed gender noted on the door, and their sojourns in the bathroom lasted at least 15 minutes. After having read Frey's "memoire", I could only IMAGINE what was going on in there. Were they shooting up? Turning sexual tricks in exchange for drugs or booze? Worse?

Now, here's the thing...under normal circumstances, before having read A Million Little Pieces, I probably would have been rather disgusted by these people and dismissed them as totally annoying screw-ups. However, after reading the book, I found a greater sympathy for them. I felt sorry for their wasted lives and for the pain they must be experiencing. I felt like I understood what they were going through because Frey had so eloquantly and brutally honestly described this horrific lifestyle in his book.

And then we all heard the smoking gun report that much of Frey's book was fabricated. What the....????

Yesterday, I went to the gym at 4 specifically to walk on the treadmill while watching Oprah, because she was having Frey on the show. She was pissed! She told him that she was embarrassed and that he had her completely fooled. She quite clearly resented having been duped. She even held off on her next book club title announcement in order to let Frey bask in the Oprah spotlight a little longer and benefit financially from all that her book club nod implies. She was really fit to be tied.

She asked him about "the dentist scene." I remember reading that scene at a Brugger's Bagel shop one Saturday after the gym and almost losing my breakfast. I think, at one point, I was on the verge of tears. Let me explain...I have a MASSIVE FEAR freak out factor when it comes to the dentist. I have to have valium before hand and enough novocane to make my entire face go numb. Last time I was there, the guy warned me that if he gave me another shot, it would literally take hours to wear off and my eyeballs would be numb. I told him BRING IT! It was gross. Even with all that anesthetic, I still end up tensing up every muscle in my body and have even been known to shed a tear or two during treatment.

I digress..

In the "memoire", Frey claims to have undergone extensive dental reconstruction, including two root canals, WITHOUT NOVOCANE! It is so hard to read this section of the book! I should have skipped over it, and almost did. It took me a while to get through it. It was horrendous. My definition of torture.

Anyway, Oprah asked him about this. She said that in the book, this was kind of a red flag for her. She believed most everything else, but had some trouble with the dentist part, particularly when her own dentist told her that NO DENTIST would ever do something like that. Even then, she still wanted to believe what Frey had written. She kept talking about this powerful theme of redemption and she really wanted to buy into it.

Anyway, as she asked him about the dentist scene, he hemmed and hawed and eventually admitted that he wasn't sure whether he had novocane or not. Oprah, my girl, was all over that! She demanded to know how you could "forget something like novocane and two root canals!?"

She pretty much lambasted Frey and his publisher. She also had numerous guests on from various reputable literary periodicals and they joined in on Frying Frey!

It was disappointing to lear that the dentist story was fabricated, that the circumstances surrounding the death of Lily were false, that he never really had any altercations with his guards at the treatment facility, and that he never spent more than 30 minutes in jail when he claims to have spent months at a time in prison. In fact, I remember he said he'd beatedn a cop. The police department issued a statement saying that indeed they responded to a scene where he was present, but that he sat in the car the entire time and was utterly polite and cooperative.

Whatever. As Oprah said, he could have just published a novel and been done with it.

I was on the bus last night and bunch of drugged up and drunk women piled in and were screaming and laughing, reeking of booze and smoke. I had very little sympathy. I just got up and moved my seat and increased the volume on my iPod.

If James Frey can lie about drug addiction, I can be disgusted by it!

Nobody's a saint here.