A Million Little Pieces
It is amazing how a cultural virus can enter your periphery and then suddenly dominate the horizon like a horde of locusts. This weekend, I was introduced to the hype that is “A Million Little Pieces” by James Frey. It started on Friday with a casual reference in an email from my friend West. Then on Saturday, I learned that Chapters had sold out all 12 copies that had arrived earlier that morning within the first two hours – no doubt due to Oprah’s blessing. Then it was Jane pointing out its #1 spot on the New York Times Non-Fiction Bestseller’s List. And to top it all off, my Sunday night phone call to my parents began with an account of my mother’s book club meeting and the inevitable “Have you heard of this book..?”
It would seem that once you’re in the loop, it is hard to find your way back out again. Has anyone out there read it? Is James Frey the new Dave Eggers? Claire Zulkey provides a review for the book that is currently shaking up the literary world over at PopMatters.
It’s a hell of a ride – I am not sure I can remember plowing through a book faster…
I thought his style suited the tale he was telling, but I never really thought he was the next anybody (perhaps he would appreciate that).
I actually finished his follow-up book, My Friend Leonard, yesterday. While it was an enjoyable read, and Frey did adapt his style to the less chaotic story he was telling, it did not grip me like A Million Little Pieces did.
Both stories seemed to unfold in such a way that made keep checking the spine of the book to reassure myself it was indeed labelled “Non-Fiction/Memoir”. Perhaps this can be taken as the sign of Staggering Genius, or at least of a great story teller, however I think we will have to wait until Frey writes somthing outside of his personal memoirs before we pass judgement one way or another(We’ll have to give him a bye for the screen play “Kissing a Fool”).
Someone should have checked to see if this woman’s Easy Spirit’s were covered in bloody vomit.
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