James Frey, the author of the disputed memoir, “A Million Little Pieces,” will appear Thursday on a live broadcast of Oprah Winfrey’s television show to address the dustup surrounding his book, according to a spokeswoman for Winfrey’s Harpo Productions.
Harpo spokeswoman Angela DePaul also said Nan A. Talese, whose imprint at Doubleday published Frey’s account of overcoming drug addiction and alcoholism, would appear with Frey, as well as several journalists familiar with allegations that parts of the memoir are fiction.
Update: 01/26 18:51 GMT by J :Apparently Oprah took Frey to task during the show, while he admitted “mistakes.”
So…
So I should have waited to reclass it into fiction?
Actually at my library people who reserved it are simply not picking it up, this is quite remarkable as they are usually chomping at the bit. To have that many people not pick a book up has not happened before.
Look at our online catalog page for it:
Adult Non-Fiction Collection 921 FREY Item being held
Adult Non-Fiction Collection 921 FREY Item hold expired
Adult Non-Fiction Collection 921 FREY Item hold expired
Adult Non-Fiction Collection 921 FREY Item being held
Adult Non-Fiction Collection 921 FREY Checked out 02/16/2006
Adult Non-Fiction Collection 921 FREY Checked out 01/31/2006
Hmm. . .
I am not sure what is more disturbing, if disturbing is the right word, the fact that the guy persists, the fact that Oprah persists in defending him, or the people who are willing to forgive the guy because of the “truthiness” in the book. I guess Frey persists because he already made his money on the tripe he is trying to pass off as a memoir. And before anyone out there says anything about how memoir may be imperfect, I will simply say there is a difference between some embellishment of events for a narrative and outright lies. I guess Oprah persists because if she were to admit she made a mistake, a lot of her readers would think less of her. She screwed up, and she now has to keep the appearances. As for the other readers, I will just leave it at that if they choose to be deceived. Maybe the people not picking up their held book is an indication some people actually see the concept of truth as important?
Whoa, apparently Oprah did a U-Turn after all.
Just saw this in the NYT. It seems she did admit to making a mistake after all, though I can’t help but wonder how much of it is damage control rather than a sincere admission. Yes, I know, I am probably too cynical. Anyhow, the link: http://tinyurl.com/9vzlc .
Re:Hmm. . .
I watched the show. Oprah said (paraphrase): To all of you who contacted me, who said that I was wrong and that the truth does matter, I just want to say that you are absolutely right. I was wrong to leave the impression that the truth is not important. It is. And I apologize.
She also said that she felt very embarrassed for having subjected readers to this situation. And she said she felt betrayed by both Frey and Doubleday for presenting the book as nonfiction when many key elements in the book were embellished, exaggerated, altered, etc.
When Oprah asked Frey if Lily had really hanged herself, and then listened as Frey said she did commit suicide, but not by hanging, Oprah had tears in her eyes and looked totally disappointed and betrayed.
Also discussed was the fact that “Night”, Oprah’s next book club selection, is also a memoir and how important it is that people be able to trust, generally, this sort of work. One of the journalists on the show pointed out that in a time when the leader of Iran has stated that the holocaust never happened, it’s more important than ever to have honesty in non-fiction works like memoirs.
You can be cynical about this if you want to. It’s your quality of life. Personally, I think the whole discussion of truth, facts, and honesty couldn’t have come at a better time in our nation’s history. I hope it continues far beyond the Frey episode.