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A Million Little Pieces

By James Frey

(123)

| Audio Cassette | 9781565117778

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Book Description

Intense, unpredictable, and instantly engaging, A Million Little Pieces is a story of drug and alcohol abuse and rehabilitation as it has never been told before. Recounted in visceral, kinetic prose, and crafted with a forthrightness that rejects piety, cynicism, and self-pity, it brings us fContinue

Intense, unpredictable, and instantly engaging, A Million Little Pieces is a story of drug and alcohol abuse and rehabilitation as it has never been told before. Recounted in visceral, kinetic prose, and crafted with a forthrightness that rejects piety, cynicism, and self-pity, it brings us face-to-face with a provocative new understanding of the nature of addiction and the meaning of recovery.

By the time he entered a drug and alcohol treatment facility, James Frey had taken his addictions to near-deadly extremes. He had so thoroughly ravaged his body that the facilityís doctors were shocked he was still alive. The ensuing torments of detoxification and withdrawal, and the never-ending urge to use chemicals, are captured with a vitality and directness that recalls the seminal eye-opening power of William Burroughsís Junky.

But A Million Little Pieces refuses to fit any mold of drug literature. Inside the clinic, James is surrounded by patients as troubled as he is -- including a judge, a mobster, a one-time world-champion boxer, and a fragile former prostitute to whom he is not allowed to speak ó but their friendship and advice strikes James as stronger and truer than the clinicís droning dogma of How to Recover. James refuses to consider himself a victim of anything but his own bad decisions, and insists on accepting sole accountability for the person he has been and the person he may become--which runs directly counter to his counselors' recipes for recovery.

James has to fight to find his own way to confront the consequences of the life he has lived so far, and to determine what future, if any, he holds. It is this fight, told with the charismatic energy and power of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, that is at the heart of A Million Little Pieces: the fight between one young manís will and the ever-tempting chemical trip to oblivion, the fight to survive on his own terms, for reasons close to his own heart.

A Million Little Pieces is an uncommonly genuine account of a life destroyed and a life reconstructed. It is also the introduction of a bold and talented literary voice.

Critics

  • A Million Little Pieces

    Words can hotwire the writer's eyes to the reader's brain. The better the language, the more powerful the connection. James Frey (pronounced 'fray', as in battle), strips it down to pure muscle in his rehab memoir of craving and recovery 'A Million L ... (read full critics)

    bookotron published on Tue, 14 Sep 2010

  • Oprah Rips James Frey A New One Share

    I've tried to avoid the popular blogging style of just listing a bunch of links to other sites, but I was researching responses to Oprah's shredding of James Frey and basically everyone has said everything there is to say. I'm sure there's a lot more ... (read full critics)

    blogcritics published on Sat, 28 Jan 2006

16 Reviews

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  • 4 people find this helpful

    AWESOME book!!! I'd read it again in a heart beat. There were some slow parts, some depressing parts, but it's worth the read. I don't care what people think about James Frey, he is an awesome writer and I applaud him!!!

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    mndy said on Feb 13, 2007 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • 2 people find this helpful

    There are a million books out there about unknown people who have truly experienced dark and painful phases in life. This book delivers this and so much more. I finished it in about a week, it's just one of those book you can't put down, not because it's a masterpiece of literature but because there ... (continue)

    There are a million books out there about unknown people who have truly experienced dark and painful phases in life. This book delivers this and so much more. I finished it in about a week, it's just one of those book you can't put down, not because it's a masterpiece of literature but because there's a really strong human feel to it.

    I recommend this book as a great 'commuting book' - it makes any train/tube ride fly by.

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    Thais said on Nov 18, 2007 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • 1 person find this helpful

    I don't care if Frey bends the truth. The book is very well written and the emotion feels real.

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    Jgraham01900 said on Feb 11, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • It contains in my opinion one of the best description of bad neighborhood in a Downtown area. (page 349 and ff in my edition)

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    Seba said on Nov 5, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • I heard all about the controversy around this book. I don't care because this book is entertaining, fiction or not. Furthermore, even the fictionalized parts are non-fiction to some dude somewhere. Believe me. It's reality all over maybe not for Frey but for a lot of innercity ghosts.

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    jelabino said on May 30, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

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9781565117778 Audio Cassette $34.95 $31.45 bn.com
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