Kudos to my sister.

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

A Million Little Pieces is a memoir by James Frey recounting his time in rehab for drug addiction. It’s a fascinating book and it’s also one of the most emotionally gripping books I’ve read in a long time.

Frey wakes up on an aeroplane with a broken nose, teeth missing and a hole through his cheek. He has no idea how he got there. He is met at the airport by his parents and soon checks into rehab.

His battle to get sober is intense and graphically accounted for. And I mean really really graphic. I’ve sat through my fair share of violent films and TV shows but even this book made me go ‘yuck’ at points.

Frey is constantly fighting. Fighting against the law, the 12 Step program that his clinic want him to go through - even other patients. What he fights the most though, is against himself. The battle for control is one that Frey places wholly with himself. His over-active sense of cynicism and mistrust of the system and of other people gradually drops, especially when he falls in love with a fellow addict at the clinic (but men and women aren’t allowed to fraternise - it’s never easy, is it?). Still, he is never really happy with the 12 Step program, especially seeing as he doesn’t believe in God. The picture from inside the clinic can be bleak at times - especially the 15% success rate. In the book when people leave the clinic there is always some hope that they can make it on the outside, but you do get the sense that deep down they know that it’s just another case of rolling the dice to see how long they’ll survive.

Most people will recognise the name of this book for the Oprah controversy and not for the book itself. Firstly, a primer if you’re not familiar. At least some of this book is made up or embellished. Maybe a lot of this book is made up or embellished. The Smoking Gun did an investigation of some of the criminal claims Frey makes and found his truthfulness to be somewhat lacking. I would strongly suggest that you don’t read that link until you’ve finished the book. That’s what I did and I’m glad.

I’ve come to the conclusion that even if all of it was made up it would still be a good book. Coming into it I knew that at least some of it was untrue (from my memory of what happened at the time) but it didn’t bother me. All the emotion still seems real. And the romantic thread will tear your heart out, I guarantee.

Go into this book without second-guessing what is and isn’t true and you’ll enjoy it.

Recommended.

Some classic Shaun Micallef.

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