Is A Million Little Pieces a true story?

Answer 1

It is partly true, but the author, James Frey, made up a lot of it to make the story more interesting.

Now, if it had been a fiction book, this would not have been a problem. After all, that's precisely what fiction writing is: using real life as the inspiration for an imaginary story. For the most part, all fiction writers get their ideas from real life. They get ideas from things they see, hear, read about and experience in the real world. Then they elaborate and expand upon these ideas to create make-believe stories.

But James Frey did not claim that his book was fiction. He claimed that it was a memoir. A memoir is supposed to be a 100% true account of the author's experiences. To exaggerate, embellish or flat-out lie in a memoir is considered unforgivable. It is a VERY serious transgression in the writing world.

Readers don't care if your story isn't 100% true, as long as you are HONEST about it. If you lie and say your memoir is 100% true, when in fact it is not, most readers will never trust you again.

Before Frey's deceit was discovered, A Million Little Pieces had been on the top of the New York Times Bestseller list for 15 weeks, and Frey himself had skyrocketed to fame. Oprah Winfrey adored the book and could not stop gushing about it.

Oprah said that the book was, "like nothing you've ever read before. Everybody at Harpo is reading it. When we were staying up late at night reading it, we'd come in the next morning saying, 'What page are you on?'" In emotional filmed testimonials, employees of Winfrey's Harpo Productions lauded the book as revelatory, with some choking back tears. When the camera then returned to a damp-eyed Winfrey, she said, "I'm crying 'cause these are all my Harpo family so, and we all loved the book so much," (quotation taken from the first Related Link below).

When people found out that the memoir that had such a huge emotional impact on them was partially fabricated, they were understandably furious. They had stayed up night after night crying over the experiences that this man had, only to find out that much of it was nothing but lies!

Frey has managed to continue his writing career, and has since published two more books. But to a lot of people, what he did was unforgivable, and it is likely that he will never be able to completely redeem himself in their eyes. His reputation will always be tarnished.