Update: Oprah Rips Frey a New One

2/3/06 - Updating the update: This article was chosen as an Editor's Pick of the Week at Blogcritics.

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 out there, but I'm only including a handful. Let's see:

Slate thinks that Oprah was really just redeeming herself rather than focusing on Frey.

The New York Times noticed an undercurrent of Oprah's usual women-violated-by-lying-cheating-macho-men theme.

TV Goddess questions whether any memoir is ever 100% factually accurate.

The Huffington Post compares Oprah's apology with President Bush's lack thereof.

The Millions asks the question that Oprah oddly ignored: Did he or did he not originally try to shop this book around as a novel? And, if so, did his publisher know this and tell him to label it as a memoir?

Gawker gives a play-by-play recap of the episode in two formats: A live blog and then a hilarious blog with pictures.

Finally, the strangest one has to be Rosie O'Donnell rambling about Frey in her bizarre, child-like blog.

I have to admit I was cynical about the whole situation. I assumed that Oprah was merely reacting to national criticism that she let Frey off easy and was therefore trying to save face. But as I watched the episode I do think she truly feels that she made a mistake in originally supporting Frey during the controversy and really is upset about it. I also think Frey was a bit stunned to have to admit to lying (well, he barely admitted it. He said he "probably" lied).

As he sat there either stuttering or looking completely dumbstruck, I wasn't quite sure why he agreed to be on the show. My cynical side says that any attention will help sell books (as of today, A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard are still hovering around the top of Amazon's best-seller list). But maybe he really did want to apologize and set the record straight. Maybe what he really wanted to do was explain how you can change some details and still call it a memoir, but Oprah wasn't having any of that, either from Frey or his publisher, Nan Talese, who appeared on the show as well.

The multitude of commentators didn't really add a lot to the show, although it was funny hearing Maureen Down say that Oprah should kick Frey's "bony, lying, non-fiction butt out of the kingdom of Oprah".

Anyway, it will be interesting to see if this really does change anything in the publishing world and, if so, if it will only be a temporary reaction or a long-term one. As critics turn their attention to other memoirs like Oprah's newest Book Club choice, Night by Elie Wiesel, and the best-selling Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs, will more and more authors include notes in their books regarding the accuracy of the contents?

If Oprah has her way, and she usually does, the answer seems to be "yes."

A Million More Copies of A Million Little Pieces

Since this has been blogged about by everyone over and over, I'm not going to get into the whole fiction/non-fiction debate. I've read the book, I understand the anger and frustration. But, having written memoir-esque short stories, I understand the manipulation of time and space that's sometimes needed to creat a coherent story. Most non-fiction involves some form of this. Having said that, James Frey went way beyond bare-bones manipulation (OK, so apparently I am getting into it) and deserves the negative attention he's receiving.

BUT, my original point of this post has a different angle. I like to check the New York Times best-selling books every Monday (I also always check Billboard's music charts and box-office numbers...maybe this list obsession is a guy thing, like in High Fidelity?). I noticed that for the week ending January 7th, Frey's A Million Little Pieces was still at the top of the non-fiction paperback list, and his follow-up, My Friend Leonard, had inexplicably jumped from the bottom of the Top Ten to No. 1 on the non-fiction hardcover list. Even weirder was how the hardcover edition of AMLP resurfaced on the same list at No. 15. Why would people start shelling out more money for the hardcover now, months after Oprah chose it for her Book Club, when the paperback was available? The hardcover didn't make an appearance even when Oprah originally chose it, so why now?

Before I could figure out the answer, the now-famous Smoking Gun report came out on January 8th. As usual, I checked the best-seller lists this week, this time ending January 14th, which takes into account sales after the report made headlines nationwide.


Lo and behold, not only is the paperback AMLP still No. 1 on its chart, but the hardcover has only fallen three spots to No. 18 and MFL only fell to No. 3 on their chart.

I didn't expect sales to plummet down to zero, especially after Oprah called in during Frey's interview with Larry King on January 11th and continued endorsing the book, but why are so many people still paying more for the hardcover?

I know some people might hear about all this controversy and think, "Hmm, this book is getting a lot of attention. Maybe I should read it so I know what this is all about."

Or,

"Hmm, this guy is getting all this negative press and Oprah still supports him. Oprah must really like this book a lot. Maybe I should find out why she insists on supporting him so wholeheartedly."

Or,

"I'm an addict (or recovering addict) and I need all the help I can get. Oprah and James and James' mom all say this could help me, so why not? Every little bit helps, right?"

The first reason? Fine. Choosing to inform yourself by reading the book that's causing so much heated debate makes sense. It's better than mouthing off on the topic without knowing what's really being talked about.


The second reason? Fine...I guess. I admit, I read this book after I decided that maybe I should read one of her Book Club selections to see what they were like (not counting the classics that I had already read before she chose them). But the fact that this book's credibility has been ripped to shreds should maybe tell you something that others who read it beforehand couldn't know. And of course Oprah still endorsed it - she can't admit that she was duped and therefore convinced her millions of fans to spend money and time on a fraud. She eclipsed responsibility (and helped Frey eclipse it, too) by blaming the publishers for blurring the lines of novel and memoir.

The third reason? That's when it starts to become dangerous. As writers at Slate, Huffington Post and others have explained, this book might hurt addicts more than help them. It would be hard to criticize a book for offering addicts hope, yet Frey's approach to recovery involves criticizing the approach of AA and other programs. If his approach is based on lies, how could he expect to inspire confidence and hope in his readers? If he lied about what brought him to attempt recovery in the first place, why should anyone believe anything else he says?

There might be other reasons that I haven't thought of (Readers? Any guesses?). But none of this explains why people are not only still buying his books in droves, but still buying tons of the hardcover edition.

Even as I write this, the paperback is still No. 2 on today's Amazon.com best-seller list (second only to Oprah's new Book Club choice, Night by Elie Wiesel), but the hardcover edition has actually jumped from No. 297 yesterday to No. 261.

Since AMLP's gravitas has been deflated, maybe people feel ashamed to buy the book yet still want to read it, so they choose to pay more for the hardcover so they can take the cover off and read it discreetly? Maybe the mere fact that it's a hardcover lends the book a more academic, intellectual, serious quality (and, therefore, less deserving of shame)? But that doesn't make sense, because if people were ashamed to buy this book now, the paperback wouldn't still be flying off the shelves.

Maybe people just want something heavy to hit Frey in the face with.

Basically, I just don't get it. So help me out. Readers?

Out With the Old, In With the New...Plus, A Request From the Blogger

So I just finished A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. Yes, it's the new Oprah Book Club choice and no, I've never read one of her choices before (at least, not because it was the Oprah Book Club choice). I'll write more on it later, because Mr. Frey has yet to actually appear on the show and I'm waiting until he does before I write about the whole book/TV show/website multi-consumption experience.

In the meantime, I have started Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. Read the following plot description and tell me if this doesn't sound like the coolest thing ever:

"Koushun Takami's notorious high-octane thriller is based on an irresistible premise: a class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill one another until only one survivor is left standing. Criticized as violent exploitation when first published in Japan - where it then proceeded to become a runaway bestseller - Battle Royale is a Lord of the Flies for the 21st century, a potent allegory of what it means to be young and (barely) alive in a dog-eat-dog world. Made into a controversial hit movie of the same name, Battle Royale is already a contemporary Japenese pulp classic, now available for the first time in the English language."

OK, are you putting everything down and running out to buy it yet? Granted, I'm sure this doesn't appeal to everyone, but to me it seems like it could be fascinating and trashy and fun, which I could desperately use after the incredibly disturbing A Million Little Pieces.

And while we're at it, why doesn't everyone out there let me know what they're reading? C'mon! Leave a comment and let me know what else I should be reading.