A Million Little Cuts
Fact: the controversy about the truthfulness or lack of truthfulness in James Frey's memoir, A Million Little Pieces, continues
to reverberate. Some people are taking a surprisingly tolerant tone.
Many readers simply like the story so much that for them, the
revelation that it could be mostly fictional does not detract from it.
Doubleday issued a kind of nondenial denial, saying, "recent
accusations against [Frey] notwithstanding, the power of the overall
reading experience is such that the book remains a deeply inspiring and
redemptive story for millions of readers." And others are saying that
memoir is so subjective that, truth be told, it often takes huge
liberties with reality.
For our part, we liked the comments made by Peter Osnos, editor at large of PublicAffairs, who told the New York Times, "Obviously a book that's called nonfiction has to be, in every fundamental respect, nonfiction. It's dismaying that a book of this visibility and stature is clearly not up to the standards that any reader would expect it to be."
At least a few booksellers, who have enjoyed selling many copies of the title, are shifting copies of the book to the fiction section.
Frey and his allies have done little to defend him. In yet another odd twist concerning this book and author, tonight Frey is scheduled to appear on Larry King Live--but a CNN spokesperson said Frey would not be "interviewed."
Perhaps the best comment about Frey's "story" comes today in a New York Times op-ed piece by Tim Carvell, a writer for the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, about the "million little corrections" he will make in the second edition of his "memoir," A Brief History of Tim.
For example: "In writing a narrative, it is sometimes necessary to compress or combine certain incidents for dramatic effect. I did much the same thing in the chapter of my book dealing with my prison term, although in reverse: in the interest of dramatic clarity, I expanded my 1993 arrest for jaywalking into a seven-year stint in Sing Sing for manslaughter.
"Okay, it wasn't so much a jaywalking 'arrest' as a ticket.
"Fine, it was a stern warning. Happy now?"
For our part, we liked the comments made by Peter Osnos, editor at large of PublicAffairs, who told the New York Times, "Obviously a book that's called nonfiction has to be, in every fundamental respect, nonfiction. It's dismaying that a book of this visibility and stature is clearly not up to the standards that any reader would expect it to be."
At least a few booksellers, who have enjoyed selling many copies of the title, are shifting copies of the book to the fiction section.
Frey and his allies have done little to defend him. In yet another odd twist concerning this book and author, tonight Frey is scheduled to appear on Larry King Live--but a CNN spokesperson said Frey would not be "interviewed."
Perhaps the best comment about Frey's "story" comes today in a New York Times op-ed piece by Tim Carvell, a writer for the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, about the "million little corrections" he will make in the second edition of his "memoir," A Brief History of Tim.
For example: "In writing a narrative, it is sometimes necessary to compress or combine certain incidents for dramatic effect. I did much the same thing in the chapter of my book dealing with my prison term, although in reverse: in the interest of dramatic clarity, I expanded my 1993 arrest for jaywalking into a seven-year stint in Sing Sing for manslaughter.
"Okay, it wasn't so much a jaywalking 'arrest' as a ticket.
"Fine, it was a stern warning. Happy now?"
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