- Paperback: 430 pages
- Publisher: Anchor Books (30 Sep 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0307276902
- ISBN-13: 978-0307276902
- Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 2.5 x 20.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (186 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 260,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
A Million Little Pieces
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The electrifying opening of James Frey's debut memoir, A Million Little Pieces, smash-cuts to the then 23-year-old author on a Chicago-bound plane "covered with a colourful mixture of spit, snot, urine, vomit and blood." Wanted by authorities in three states, without ID or any money, his face mangled and missing four front teeth, Frey is on a steep descent from a dark marathon of drug abuse. His stunned family checks him into a famed Minnesota drug treatment centre where a doctor promises "he will be dead within a few days" if he starts to use again, and where Frey spends two agonising months of detox confronting "The Fury" head:
I want a drink. I want fifty drinks. I want a bottle of the purest, strongest, most destructive, most poisonous alcohol on Earth. I want 50 bottles of it. I want crack, dirty and yellow and filled with formaldehyde. I want a pile of powder meth, 500 hits of acid, a garbage bag filled with mushrooms, a tube of glue bigger than a truck, a pool of gas large enough to drown in. I want something anything whatever however as much as I can.One of the more harrowing sections is when Frey submits to major dental surgery without the benefit of anesthesia or painkillers (he fights the mind-blowing waves of "bayonet" pain by digging his fingers into two old tennis balls until his nails crack). His fellow patients include a damaged crack addict with whom Frey wades into an ill-fated relationship, a federal judge, a mobster, and a former championship boxer (who throws a hilarious surf-and-turf bacchanal, complete with pay-per-view boxing, upon his release). In the book's epilogue, when Frey ticks off a terse update on everyone, you can almost hear the Jim Carroll Band's brutal survivor's lament "People Who Died" kicking in on the soundtrack of the inevitable film adaptation.
The rage-fuelled memoir is kept in check by Frey's cool, minimalist style. Like his steady mantra, "I am an Alcoholic and I am a drug Addict and I am a Criminal," Frey's use of repetition takes on a crisp, lyrical quality which lends itself to the surreal experience. The book could have benefited from being a bit leaner. Nearly 400 pages is a long time to spend under Frey's influence, and the stylistic acrobatics (no quotation marks, random capitalization, left-aligned text, wild paragraph breaks) may seem too self-conscious for some readers, but beyond the literary fireworks lurks a fierce debut. --Brad Thomas Parsons, Amazon.com --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'A heartbreaking memoir ! inspirational and essential' -- Bret Easton Ellis 'Horribly honest and funny ! Read this immediately' -- Gus Van Sant 'Harrowing and unflinching ... This is not a book about drugs but about their aftermath ... Though definitely not for the faint hearted, Frey is often darkly and self deprecatingly funny. This is, in essence, a story of redemption and an incredibly moving one. This is a great book' -- Waterstone's Books Quarterly 'Blisteringly written ! The prose is superb' -- Daily Express 20050826
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This outstanding memoir by James Frey's articulating his struggles to put his pathetic , addicted, broken life back together is written with such realness that most addicts can relate to it. One gets awed from the beginning by the author's writing skills as well as the gripping nature of the story. Not only has it so many lessons in it, I also find it inspirational. Like The Grandmothers by Janvier Chando, Smashed by Koren Zailckas, and other interesting stories out there, A MILLION LITTLE PIECES easily brings tears, sighs, laughter and phew in different turns.
32 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The book follows James Frey's time in rehab, following a priveliged childhood, a good university career, dabbling in drink and drugs and finally ending up a hopelesss addict. This leads him to his time in rehab, and his story of how he overcome that addiction.
James' point is that the 12 steps, and believing only God can cure you, is a flawed theory. He feels that only the addict can decide to get clean, in the same way that the addict decides to take the next drink/hit/whatever. He spend his early time in Rehab fighting the system, and anyone that tries to help.
I was not aware of the controversy surrounding the book when I read it, so took it at face value. However at many times the story felt unreal.
I am pretty sure most of this is seriously embellished (even more than the author now admits) - the story reads like a hollywood movie script - a fatherly mafia boss, a boxing champ, a supreme court judge and a deep, caring, loving crack addicted girlfriend are all major characters.
However the few moments when you feel that James is actually baring his soul are what makes the book. He is self obsessed, whiney, self hating and self indulgent, angry and defensive but desparate for acceptance, but he has a bitter humour which stops the book descending into a pity tale.
He obviously creates a lot of the characters and situations, but he could not have written this unless he had some experience of addiction, and his true story I expect would not have been quite as interesting.
Overall this is a great read, and a refreshing outlook on addiction rather than the usual "God saved me, Praise be!" stories. His exaggerations keep the story exciting, making it easier to suspend disbelief. If read as fiction this book is fantastic. It is also a great book for parents of teenagers to read, as it does give a great insight into the mind of a confused young guy falling a bit too far into the drink and drug scene. For an insight on serious addiction though, I would look elsewhere (Piece of Cake is great)
The inevitable movie will no doubt be a box office smash
James' point is that the 12 steps, and believing only God can cure you, is a flawed theory. He feels that only the addict can decide to get clean, in the same way that the addict decides to take the next drink/hit/whatever. He spend his early time in Rehab fighting the system, and anyone that tries to help.
I was not aware of the controversy surrounding the book when I read it, so took it at face value. However at many times the story felt unreal.
I am pretty sure most of this is seriously embellished (even more than the author now admits) - the story reads like a hollywood movie script - a fatherly mafia boss, a boxing champ, a supreme court judge and a deep, caring, loving crack addicted girlfriend are all major characters.
However the few moments when you feel that James is actually baring his soul are what makes the book. He is self obsessed, whiney, self hating and self indulgent, angry and defensive but desparate for acceptance, but he has a bitter humour which stops the book descending into a pity tale.
He obviously creates a lot of the characters and situations, but he could not have written this unless he had some experience of addiction, and his true story I expect would not have been quite as interesting.
Overall this is a great read, and a refreshing outlook on addiction rather than the usual "God saved me, Praise be!" stories. His exaggerations keep the story exciting, making it easier to suspend disbelief. If read as fiction this book is fantastic. It is also a great book for parents of teenagers to read, as it does give a great insight into the mind of a confused young guy falling a bit too far into the drink and drug scene. For an insight on serious addiction though, I would look elsewhere (Piece of Cake is great)
The inevitable movie will no doubt be a box office smash
25 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
You need to be aware before reading this book that you are either going to love it or hate it. There will be no middle ground. The book does not deserve it.
Frey's introduction to the later prints of this book acknowledges that some of the incidents are possibly not true and, if you end up in the hating it bracket, embelished, but he justifies this with the explanation that he was not entirely of a sound mind at the times he was trying to recollect.
This book is about an Alcoholic, drug Adict and Criminal in his own words. Frey is, for those of us who live in a safe middle class world, the worst of the worst. Someone who has wasted his life, despite having loving parents and a supporting family, choosing instead drugs and alcohol and criminality. The book starts with his arrival in a rehabilitation centre and develops over his time there.
In the centre he comes across as a difficult patient, unwilling to accept what he is being taught, but it is more because he is trying to do things his own way. It is a fine example of how there may be more than one way to solve a problem.
This is a book that pulls no punches. There is a situation in the first third of the book (one of the situations that Frey acknowledges may have been mistold) that I read whilst standing waiting to meet someone and I had to sit down due to feeling unwell. There is another paragraph at the end of the book that had me close to tears. It is emotional and moving throughout.
For people who have experienced addiction, I can imagine it is not an easy book to read and would be easy to disagree with, as I get the feeling that addiction is something that is different for all. As someone who was fortunate to grow up in a similar safe, middle class environment as Frey it causes different feelings. There but for the Grace of God go I is the main feeling I got from it. Not to say that I have been close to being an adict, more that I can see how it happens, and I am glad it did not to me.
This is an amazingly and well written book. I would recommend it to everyone, though I would tell everyone that there is a big chance you may hate it.
It's that sort of book.
Frey's introduction to the later prints of this book acknowledges that some of the incidents are possibly not true and, if you end up in the hating it bracket, embelished, but he justifies this with the explanation that he was not entirely of a sound mind at the times he was trying to recollect.
This book is about an Alcoholic, drug Adict and Criminal in his own words. Frey is, for those of us who live in a safe middle class world, the worst of the worst. Someone who has wasted his life, despite having loving parents and a supporting family, choosing instead drugs and alcohol and criminality. The book starts with his arrival in a rehabilitation centre and develops over his time there.
In the centre he comes across as a difficult patient, unwilling to accept what he is being taught, but it is more because he is trying to do things his own way. It is a fine example of how there may be more than one way to solve a problem.
This is a book that pulls no punches. There is a situation in the first third of the book (one of the situations that Frey acknowledges may have been mistold) that I read whilst standing waiting to meet someone and I had to sit down due to feeling unwell. There is another paragraph at the end of the book that had me close to tears. It is emotional and moving throughout.
For people who have experienced addiction, I can imagine it is not an easy book to read and would be easy to disagree with, as I get the feeling that addiction is something that is different for all. As someone who was fortunate to grow up in a similar safe, middle class environment as Frey it causes different feelings. There but for the Grace of God go I is the main feeling I got from it. Not to say that I have been close to being an adict, more that I can see how it happens, and I am glad it did not to me.
This is an amazingly and well written book. I would recommend it to everyone, though I would tell everyone that there is a big chance you may hate it.
It's that sort of book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
top read
i read the sample of this book after seeing it on the tv book show so i had to get it and i wasnt dissapointed if you love drink and drugs youll understand where the guy is coming... Read more
Published 13 days ago by davecress
Fantastic
This book is one of the most amazing I have ever read. I just loved every page and up to now this is one of my favorite books. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Eileen
Wow
I brought this book on a reccommendation and left it for a while before deciding to give it a go. It was not at all what I expected and although I have read that some of it is... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Lydia
Great writer
Whether you believe the writer lived this life or not you cannot argue that it has been written well. A brilliant read.
Published 3 months ago by J. Smith
No problems
I bought this book second hand, yet I found no marks, bends to the spine or pages folded. It even came with a free bookmark :) Very happy.
Published 4 months ago by Ellie
a great piece iof fiction...
James Frey's account of addiction is honest and leaves no grimy details spared. Unlike other books of a smiliar subject I have read, Frey does not try to glamourise or sexualise... Read more
Published 4 months ago by BookButterfly
A Million Little pieces, James Frey
This is one of those "must read" books, love it or hate it you won't be able to deny the emotional impact this has on you. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Simon Hatfield
An excellent, but also moving story, about a world that is alien to...
I wouldn't have read this book if it hadn't been recommended to me, but I'm glad it was as I thoroughly enjoyed it. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mr. S. N. Pattison
absolutely amazing
This book is the most powerful and emotional book i have ever read in my entire life! Cant wait to read it again and the rest of James Frey's books.
Published 10 months ago by Benji
Amazing Writing
I guess I picked an apt time to read this one, it seems that James Frey has been a little bit naughty and added a couple of bits and pieces to his memoir that are not completely... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Lincs Reader
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