![]() Every now and then a book of which much is made turns out to be "Emperor's New Clothes" and this clearly is such a book. Even if the book is viewed in its entirety as a work of fiction it remains a complete disappointment to me: it is some of the worst fiction I have ever read. I have been sober for over 18 years and I didn't see any "recovery" in this book at all. I was frequently distracted by the "over dramatized" narration. The text is a series of improbabilities stacked upon improbabilities in a repetitive "rant". This book cries out: "Fact-checker needed."Įven prior to recent bad publicity (isn't all publicity good publicity?) I found this book to be a major disappointment. It reads like one of his worst works, if we can say one is worse than another, but uses a style so imitative that one has no choice but to think that the author either copied his style or tried to update "Bright Lights." and transpose in into an incredibly morose melodrama. And the blurb from Bret Easton Ellis makes me think that HE may have been the real author. The entire story is so preposterous that I cannot believe people would buy into it. Judge, Mafiosa, Simon & Garfunkle's Boxer, the lovely little hooker, the "saved" who stay and work at the clinic. And the cast of characers reads likes a bad Hollywood script. I find it impossible to believe that a local anesthetic would cause such a severe reaction that a rehab clinic couldn't allow it. Two root canals while strapped in a dentist's chair at the onset of the rehab program. Let's face it-being allowed on an airplane in the described state would be impossible even before 9-11. I plan to check many of the so-called "events" described in the book by looking into Mr. This is fiction, and not even good fiction.įrom its beginning with the surreal plane trip to the end, I find it impossible to believe most, if any, part of this fable is true. If you want facts and something that works, pick up a blue book. In particular, addicts should be able to smell this one coming from a mile away. ![]() Finally, I don't know how anyone ever believed that anything in this book could possibly be true. Addicts I know who are recovering have completely surrendered and are willing to try anything, they don't thumb their nose at everything offered. He even starts the book saying how he had never been able to do it on his own before. The type of addict Frey purports to be (and I'm not sure he even is) doesn't just will himself to stop. ![]() Anyone who has ever been in 12 step knows that working your own program is going to lead to relapse. What I got from this was something totally unrelatable to my own experience, not helpful, and even dangerous in its advocacy to do it your own way. Maybe I would learn something more, or see something a different way, or at least see myself. But, I thought with all the fanfare and rave reviews that this might be worthwhile for an addict such as myself. Anyone who knows an addict should fully expect this. I wasn't too bothered that it was embellished and parts had been fabricated. Okay, so I knew about the controversy surrounding this book when I decided to download and listen. ![]() And he must battle the ever-tempting chemical trip to oblivion.Īn uncommonly genuine account of a life destroyed and reconstructed, and a provocative alternative understanding of the nature of addiction and the meaning of recovery, A Million Little Pieces marks the debut of a bold and talented literary voice. He must fight to survive on his own terms, for reasons close to his own heart. ![]() He insists on accepting sole accountability for the person he has been and the person he may become, which he feels runs counter to his counselor's recipes for recovery. James refuses to consider himself a victim of anything but his own bad decisions. To James, their friendship and advice seem stronger and truer than the clinic's droning dogma of How to Recover. Inside the clinic, he is surrounded by patients as troubled as he: a judge, a mobster, a former world-champion boxer, and a fragile former prostitute. By the time James Frey enters a drug and alcohol treatment facility, he has so thoroughly ravaged his body that the doctors are shocked he is still alive. ![]()
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