So, I thought it interesting that two of the people that I’m “friends” with on Facebook chose to comment on my quote from James Frey’s book, A Million Little Pieces. What boggles my mind is (1) I was hardly ever friends with them in high school except by acquaintance and (2) they’ve never commented on anything else I’ve written so why start now? … because it’s a controversial book?!?! My purpose to share what I did, was to make a point about addictions. As I was reading it - it really sunk in and I finally grasped a strong understanding of the devastating effects of an addiction - both for the individual and their family. And as many of you know - this would be really significant to me.
Anyways, the quote from Frey’s book is:
"… addiction is a disease. Whether it is to alcohol or drugs or food or gambling or sex or anything else, it is a disease. It is a chronic and progressive disease. It is classified as such by most doctors and by organizations such as the American Medical Association and the World Health Organization. It is a disease that can be arrested, or placed into a state of remission, but that is incurable. No matter how hard we try, no matter what action we take, addiction, she says [the counselor in a group session that Frey is attending], is incurable. Absolutely incurable" (p. 289).
So, after reading the introduction both from Frey and the publishing company – before I ever started reading the book, I knew there’d be some spots that I’d question the validity of what was written. However, I chose this book on my own – it wasn’t recommended to me – I didn’t even know it was on Oprah’s book club list from several years ago. I simply was at Barnes & Noble, had a gift card from my parents for my birthday – and happen to enjoy memoir books. After reading the title and the back of the book I was intrigued in a couple of ways. The first being that I wondered how I’d be able to apply it to my own situations and the second I wanted to hear the author’s story. After all, isn’t that exactly what a memoir is? – the author’s story?
A similar situation could be said about any of Dan Brown’s books. They are all published as fiction works. However, the author has taken the liberty to chose settings, characters, places, and ideas that can be very real and write his story as though they are real. But let me remind you… it is a fictional work. If Brown’s stories are nonfiction – why then we might as well say that Harry Potter is my neighbor and I went to Hogwarts for school.
Anyways, the first page of text in the book offers a note to the reader from Frey. The copy of the book that I have was published in 2004 and it reads
"I embellished many details about my past experiences, and altered others in order to serve what I felt was the greater purpose of the book. I sincerely apologize to those readers who have been disappointed by my actions… I didn’t initially think of what I was writing as nonfiction or fiction, memoir or autobiography. I wanted to use my experiences to tell my story about addiction and alcoholism, about recovery, about family and friends and faith and love, about redemption and hope… I wanted to write a book that would detail the fight addicts and alcoholics experience in their minds and their bodies and detail what that fight is difficult to win. I wanted to write a book that would help the friends and family members of addicts and alcoholics understand that fight."
It is with this knowledge and first page of text that I chose to purchase and read the book. I’m not writing this blog as a defense to anything that has been done, written, or said. I’m simply writing it to say that everyone is going to have their own unique memoir of a given situation. And the only book that I would say could stand against the test of time, people, and judgment is the Bible.
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