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I recently finished the Oprah-sanctioned rehab-memoir A Million Little Pieces by James Frey and found it interesting but with more than a slight stink of bullshit on it. Between the now famous scene where the author has multiple root canals peformed on him without the help of pain killers to the improbably sensitive characters he meets in rehab it all felt more than a little fictionalized for the sake of making a good story.

The Smoking Gun has written a long article that proves that Frey took a lot of liberties with facts in the memoir that he has claimed to be "all true". They have dug up various legal records and testimonies from arresting officers that contradict some incidents he describes that were integral parts to the narrative he has written. Interestingly, TSG also publishes off the record comments by Frey himself that admit to fabricating and embellishing many details of his prior arrests (he pissed them off by posting parts of an email they had sent him on his own website so they took that as a waiver of confidentiality). There is also a true incident involving two girls that were killed in a train accident that Frey claims a peripheral involvement in as well as a significant relationship with one of the girls. Records and interviews seem to indicate otherwise.

It will be interesting to see if there is any fallout from this and if Oprah herself feels the need to address the issue.

You can read the article here.

Posted at January 10, 2006 11:22 AM