Friday, February 24, 2012
Book Talk: A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
This is a re-run posting by one of my students, Cloie Cohen, a long time student in my Craft Class. Enjoy her insights on memoir. She's a hard working writer who is paying her dues.
A Google search brings up over a hundred thousand results for A Million Little Pieces. They seem to mostly refer to the controversy. Is it memoir or fiction? Were readers betrayed by Frey’s embellishments? Was Oprah really duped by this cunning author and his lying publishers? I don’t care about the controversy and am not sure if it’s because I happened to see the Oprah episode where she confronted Frey (and I felt sorry for him), 
or because I had read his book before all was “revealed” and decided I still liked the book. Truth is not absolute and our memory comprises a small portion of millions of multifaceted moments that happen every day. If I want to write about the lunch lady in second grade who smelled like baby-powder, I don’t care if she really used baby powder or if her name was really Janice as I remember. And I don’t care if it was acid or psychedelic mushrooms that my Dad took on the day he wigged out and broke up our house. He was out of his mind and shook my world. That is what matters to my story and I’m sorry if a reader will feel duped if I don’t get the exact type of drug right.
What matters to me about Frey’s story is that I could not pull myself away on the first or second or third read through. I stayed up in to the early morning hours reading, knowing I would suffer the next day and need to drink more coffee just to make it through.
Frey invites us in, so close to his experience, and keeps us close the whole way through. The absence of quotation marks confuses me at first, but I get the hang of his style fast. I don’t know if he’s speaking or if someone else is speaking or if he’s just thinking. It amplifies the feeling that we are with a damaged person, in a chemical fog, being enveloped by an even thicker psychological fog full of demons and regret and tragedy. We are in the middle of his addiction and the start of his recovery. We are inside his family that is not unlike many of our families. We know their dysfunction, ask the same questions. 
Why does one brother become a raging addict while another does not?
I was much more careful with James than I was with Bob (jr). I knew we weren’t going to have any other Children, and I wanted James to be perfect and healthy and safe. I can’t say it any other way. I wanted him to be safe.
What horrible things did the parents do to create such a monster?
It went on for almost two years. James just screamed and screamed. Bob started doing well at his Firm and got a raise, and as soon as we had some extra money, I took James to see a better Doctor. As soon as he looked at him, he told me that James had terrible infections in both of his ears that were eating away his eardrums. He said James had been screaming for all that time because he was in tremendous pain and that he had been screaming for help.
Where did it all go so terribly wrong?
Ran over a Nursery School Teacher with a Big Wheel. I did it on purpose. I was four. Hit a boy with a bookbag full of books and broke his nose. His name was Fred. I was six. Dug a hole and tricked a boy named Michael into climbing into the hole. I put a board over the hole and I sat on it for three hours. He cried and cried and cried. I laughed. I was seven.
I’ve thought many times that if I can just keep my kids safe, safer than I was as a kid, that my purpose in life would be fulfilled. I blamed myself many times for my own son’s untreated ear infections, where he didn’t cry or tug at his ears, but the doctor would again and again find inflamed red ear drums that eventually led to surgery. I watch my kids and their struggles with impulse control. I don’t think either of them has intentionally trapped a kid in a hole, but are they on the path to becoming addicts anyway?
Or is Frey’s alcoholic grandfather the smoking gun? A Million Little Pieces reminds us that absolute answers are rare. It reminds us there is no sure fire way to prevent a child from becoming an addict.
If genetics are really as strong as they say when it comes to addiction, my kids are screwed. There are alcoholics, prescription drug addicts, sex addicts, gamblers, compulsive overeaters, smokers, and compulsive liars just one or two branches up the family tree. As a family, we suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder. depression, manic depression, schizophrenia, hyperactivity, delusion, anxiety, and all the disorders related to sleeping and eating. Some of us medicate with doctor’s prescriptions, others with our own prescriptions.
If one of the paths to overcoming addiction is to be honest and open and conscious, then the only thing I can really do is tell the stories. When they are ready for them, my kids will hear the stories of my dad and how he got high and violent and lost his family. They will hear about Grandpa Jack and how he predicted the end of the world and scared the daylights out of his family. They will even hear about Joe and I and our crazy years of partying before they were born. They will hear about the aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents and how they struggle everyday. The stories will be truthful, but more important, they will tell the story.
2 Comments:
I am such a fan of Frey. And while I've never read that bit about the eardrums before, I don't find it surprising. (As soon as he looked at him, he told me that James had terrible infections in both of his ears that were eating away his eardrums. He said James had been screaming for all that time because he was in tremendous pain and that he had been screaming for help.) It fits unfortunately well to the whole perception I have of him.
I think the title of this blog ties in well to it too. "Prolifically Raw". I know you aren't just a Frey-fansite, but don't you think that is such an apt description of his writing style? From a literary perspective I think he's really edgy and pushes the envelope. Even without all the controversy about the content I think Frey is still totally out there in a way that hasn't been done before. His disregard for normal rules of grammar, capitalization, format, punctuation, everything is somehow liberating and terrifying (as someone who otherwise enjoys being immersed in Austen, Bronte(s), Wilde, Woolf). But maybe that's why he's so interesting to read -- in a literary climate where everything has been done before he reaches outside the reader's comfort zone.
Have you read Bright Shiny Morning? I have to say, it's my favorite book (of all time!) I could not put it down. It was so weird and wonderful.
Your suggestion for Bright Shiny Morning is much appreciated-I just been added it to my reading list.
In my opinion, compelling writing should always have an undercooked quality and honesty for sure. It's remarkable how Frey's disregard can feel so alive and "weird and wonderful".
Thanks for your comment!
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