4th
Oprah’s self-righteous book club
The Columbia Chronicle - link
Originally published: February 6, 2006
Last year, James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces was second only to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as the best-selling book in the United States. The memoir’s success could be attributed to a number of strengths, such as the immediacy of telling the story in the present tense, or stylistic appeal like the absence of indentation and quotation marks.
But it was undoubtedly Frey’s Oct. 26 appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and the book’s selection for the hostess’ book club that helped propel sales to 3.5 million copies after being published in 2003.
Over the course of two years, many of Pieces’ readers raved about the author’s tale of addiction and recovery. It was nothing short of inspiring—until the website The Smoking Gun revealed that much of the so-called memoir was completely fabricated. That revelation set off widespread outrage from readers, even prompting a federal class-action lawsuit accusing publishers Random House and Nan Talese of negligence for failing to check the supposed facts.
The furor over Pieces would be a bit more deserved if it didn’t reek so much of the “Gotcha!” mentality. While a distinct few initially suspected that Frey’s memoir may not have been completely fair with the facts, the recent wave of critics rushing to crucify the author in the spirit of adapting the most popular stance is nothing short of distressing. Even The Smoking Gun’s editor, William Bastone, admitted to the Chicago Tribune that the author’s live Jan. 26 denunciation on Winfrey’s show was so brutal that “at the end, you felt bad for Frey.”
Of course, Winfrey wasn’t quick to pin Frey down for her millions of viewers, as evidenced by her decision to call into CNN’s Larry King Show on Jan. 11 and defend the author. But it’s obvious that arguably the most powerful woman in the media did an about-face to publicly humble Frey for one reason: to spare the fate of her book club.
Naturally, many simple minds jumped on Winfrey’s side and applauded her for essentially saving face. But even though Frey is guilty of embellishment, the bottom line remains that his storytelling was what people purchased the book for, and will continue to do so. His book remains in Amazon’s top five best-sellers despite the controversy.
Memories are deeply personal portraits of how one recounts particular events, and as a recovering drug addict, Frey admits his exaggerations were the tough-guy character he saw himself as. That confession alone should elicit empathy from Oprah’s typically impressionable audience. Instead, her studio was filled with gasps of horror, as though the admission was too criminal to relate to.
A great many labels will follow Frey for the remainder of his life. But for the majority of the public quick to repeat the cry of liar and tiresomely claim they’ve been cheated, their rage really comes from the one label they gave him and can no longer take away: best-selling author.
