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James Frey's fabrication
Leslie Guttman told me about this Monday — seemed incredible then, and still does:
The Smoking Gun: The Man Who Conned Oprah. "Book Club" author's best-selling nonfiction memoir filled with fabrications, falsehoods, other fakery, TSG probe finds.
A six-week investigation by The Smoking Gun reveals that there may be a lot less to love about Frey's runaway hit, which has sold more than 3.5 million copies and, thanks to Winfrey, has sat atop The New York Times nonfiction paperback best seller list for the past 15 weeks. ...Police reports, court records, interviews with law enforcement personnel, and other sources have put the lie to many key sections of Frey's book. The 36-year-old author, these documents and interviews show, wholly fabricated or wildly embellished details of his purported criminal career, jail terms, and status as an outlaw "wanted in three states."
In additon to these rap sheet creations, Frey also invented a role for himself in a deadly train accident that cost the lives of two female high school students. In what may be his book's most crass flight from reality, Frey remarkably appropriates and manipulates details of the incident so he can falsely portray himself as the tragedy's third victim. It's a cynical and offensive ploy that has left one of the victims' parents bewildered. "As far as I know, he had nothing to do with the accident," said the mother of one of the dead girls.
First off, wow, what a disappointment. Frey's book has been on my reading list for a few weeks now.
Second, if The Smoking Gun's reporting holds up, it will be one of the most compelling examples of investigative reporting at the grassroots level. Yes, TSG has funding and a small staff, but any blogger or team of bloggers could have done the same, with the same journalist skill sets.
Frey is on CNN's "Larry King Live" now (repeats at midnight ET), saying, "It's been a very, very trying week." Haven't heard any mea culpas yet.
More links from Gawker.
Later: Larry King lobbed quite a few softballs -- which is why people are so willing to come onto his show, I suppose -- and even let Frey's mother appear. (Here's a shocker: "I stand by my son!") But there was this interesting exchange:
Larry King: There's a story around that you offered this to a lot of publishers as fiction. It was turned down, and then you changed it. Is that true?
Frey: We initially shopped the book as a novel. It was turned down by a number of publishers as a novel or as a nonfiction book. ... Nan Talese ... thought the best thing to do was to publish it as a memoir.
King: Why did you shop it as a novel if it wasn't?
Frey: I think of the book as working in a long tradition that great American writers have done in the past, people like Hemingway and Fitzgerald and Kerouac and Charles Bukowski.
King: But they all said fiction.
Frey: Yeah, they did. At the time they lived, the genre of memoir didn't exist.
Frey went on and on during the interview about how he stands behind the "essential truth" of his memoir, but he didn't deny The Smoking Gun's chief findings: that he never was in a melee with police, wasn't arrested for smoking crack, wasn't arrested for felony DUI, and on and on. This strikes me as going well beyond artistic license into fabrication.
January 11, 2006 at 06:23 PM in Books, Citizen media | Permalink
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Comments
One could say he has a valid point. He just failed to specify whether his memoir was fictional or non-fictional, the world assuming, given the nature of the vast majority of memoirs, that it was the latter.
On the other hand, one could say he's a baldfaced liar.
Posted by: Matt at Jan 11, 2006 11:09:51 PM
I think if we worried about the lack of employment in this country and how to keep our companies here instead of sending them overseas. The things that were found to be "not true" in this book mean nothing to the meaning of the book. Who cares if jail time wasn't spent. I have seen several exactly in the shoe that were wrote about. We should comend James and be proud of the accomplishment he has made and who did he hurt in this book? Be proud James and keep you head up. "hold on", things always get better. Kim
Posted by: kim at Jan 14, 2006 4:14:36 AM
Why doesnt smoking gun get a life, who cares if he embellished his criminal career...that isnt what the book was about! It was about drug addiction from his own perspective. If the book was untrue it really doesnt matter...Its a great book despite smoking guns accusations. I'm sure many writers embellish their stories. Why is it hurting peoples feelings? They are lucky he shared any of his story at all! It was a privelage and I'm sure has helped people around the world!
Posted by: Melissa at Jan 14, 2006 12:09:21 PM
I read a good review of "Pieces" about Frey and God Thanks for the post. Review. Maybe it will add to the discussion
Posted by: Jim at Jan 16, 2006 5:13:30 AM
Thanks for the post. If you are interested in the spiritual side of Frey. I read review of Frey & God Review. Maybe it will add to the discussion
Posted by: Jim at Jan 16, 2006 5:14:44 AM
'F' the smoking gun! A memoir is one's own reality and interpretation; a reality that James recreated. Im sure it was not easy for a man to worldly humiliate himself in writing. The smoking gun needs to look beyond the few pages they felt to scrutinize and see the book as a whole: thousands of people have found James Frey's MEMOIR inspirational and as living proof of "holding on's" resluts. I can strongly say that I am one.
Posted by: Shana at Jan 17, 2006 10:42:08 AM
As the wife of a recovered alcoholic, 33 years . He went through treatment and a brother that died at 47 of Alcohol poisoning...I take issue with all the questioning.. Addiction is pretty, it's real Treatment isn't pretty, it's real. People are talking about the book and addiction aren't they. G Hoglund
Posted by: gloria hoglund at Jan 17, 2006 12:01:41 PM
All I want to know is, was the dentist office scene real. I'm sure he had a root canal but did they really do it with out novicane??? If thats true I don't care about the rest.
Posted by: Diane at Jan 17, 2006 6:54:16 PM
Embellished? Apparently you are some people that were duped by this author and looking to rationalize yourselves out of embarrassment. He didn’t stretch the truth. He lied. And because of his greed, he lied. When you ask "who did he hurt?", I imagine the parents of the two young women that died don't feel very appreciative of having their loved one's memory disgraced by some liar’s greed. When you excuse his behavior you instead are saying that it's ok to lie. Let’s at least shoot for some integrity here. If not for yourselves maybe for the next generation.
Posted by: Jeff M at Jan 17, 2006 9:51:36 PM
Here's what makes this such a big story. This person raised on a pedestal by Oprah and her millions of sheep ... I mean fans, who promotes unconventional treatment and the idea that substance abuse is not a disease but a "weakness," is suddenly found to have embellished his experiences. I don't care how many times he was or wasn't in fact arrested, his whole story lacks credibility now, including whether he even was a drug addict. Maybe he's just this very judgmental person who's bent on putting all addicts in their place by disputing the idea of addiction as a disease and by labelling them as "weak." The problem with liars is once you catch them, everything they've ever said is colored by the label "liar." James Frey blew it.
Posted by: Kim at Jan 22, 2006 1:57:32 PM
The guy is full of it. He took dramatic license with the whole story. Had he told the real story, he may never had sold a book and he knows that.
Posted by: Ed at Jan 22, 2006 5:48:23 PM
I was disappointed with the book, and disgusted that he would fabricate such insanity. Sure, people are talking about addiction, but I don't believe his writing will realistically help anyone. In his book the main character stays "sober" by "testing" himself at a bar first thing out of rehab! How ridiculous! I wonder how many poor souls sitting in rehab right now are reading his BS and thinking that doing what he did will help them stop drinking/doing drugs.
Posted by: meg at Jan 22, 2006 10:12:30 PM
I completely get james frey, his writings and his attitude. I could care less if he "embellished" or outright lied. I am certain that if all non-fiction memoirs were investigated as throughly as his, more embellishements and lies would be unearthed. it's creative/artistic license. the only thing that bothers me is how james talks about "responsiblity" for his thoughts, his actions, his choices. I agree to let the haters hate. but i have a feeling that his not taking responsibility for this is messing him up in the head. can't wait to see how they handle the movie version...great controversy. his movie will gross some serious cash. you go james...
Posted by: LAURIE at Jan 23, 2006 4:39:11 PM
All of these comments stating that the truth does not matter are realy very sad and speak volumes about how some people today look at things.
YES, it DOES matter if Frey's book is full of lies, half-truths, and exaggerations. The reason it matters is because THE TRUTH MATTERS and Frey sold his book as non-fiction!
One wouldn't think this fact of life would be so hard for these readers to understand. Passing off lies as the truth is what happened in places like Nazi Germany, the USSR, and Doubleday Publishing Company!
Grow up people! You don't need feel good fairy tales to make you feel better about yourself. And you don't need the lying authors who pass off those fairy tales as the truth either.
Posted by: feudi pandola at Jan 26, 2006 11:30:27 AM
i loved a millon little pieces and i think that everyone is making a little thing into a big thing. he is a recovering alcoholic and drugadict! leave him alone. the book was awesome even though the whole thing wasnt true! i give him a lot of credit! MUAH!
Posted by: crystal at Jan 26, 2006 2:26:08 PM
yes the dental scene is true, when a recovering addict comes into the dental office they cannot receive any sort of anesthesia. i am in my last year of dental school and come from a long line of dentists. i have experience in treating recovering addicts. the anesthesia causes similiar chemical reactions in the brain and can easily throw a patient off course. as for him testing himself in a bar, believe it or not many recovering addicts use this method to test themselves. his book is a journey through rehab and that is what it should be taken as.
Posted by: duchess at Jan 26, 2006 3:36:21 PM
This is a country of cry babies. I back James Frey 10000%. I am an adict and I get James Frey. I know the anger he writes with and I think is completely absurd that this has become the controversey of the day. So he changed or embelished a few things. I would love to see how many people who question this book belive in the BIBLE. I would love to see how many of these critics have even dealt with drug addiction. There are worse problems in the world than trying to discredit a book. Cry me a river.
Posted by: Scott at Jan 26, 2006 4:35:07 PM
Fact or fiction, the book is helping a lot of people . Just like another slightly embellished book ie: the bible...Seriously, it seems Americans love to put someone on a pedestal just to watch them fall. Looks like Oprah consulted enough people to save her own ass. I guess her new title is GOD, the truth and the light. Unbelievable. My opinion of her has shattered into a million little pieces.
Posted by: shelley goerzen at Jan 26, 2006 9:27:59 PM
Yeah, I am with James. It still is an execllent book on RECOVERY from addiction, NOT this other BS. James has helped addicts recover, which is much more important than crucifying him for fabrication. Everyone needs to relax. The fury is in all of us.
Posted by: Kat at Jan 26, 2006 9:55:11 PM
Frey was on "Oprah" today. Her dentist said that the dental scene depicted in the book was preposterous and impossible. She asked Frey about it. He said he didn't remember if he received novocaine or not.
He also said he was in police custody for a few hours, not 87 days.
He also said the girl he was seeing slit her wrists and didn't hang herself. He refuses to name her, perhaps because they had no actual relationship.
The point here is not to beat up Frey, but to defend the integrity of memoirs as a genre of *non-fiction.* As a writer who painstakingly checks to make sure that all the facts I put in my book are accurate, it's painful to see an author rationalize what he has done here. Ebellishments are one thing; making up events out of whole cloth are the stuff of novels.
Those who say Frey's book touched them in a profound way are free to feel that way, and Frey should feel heartened by that. But to say that whether a non-fiction writer makes up events doesn't matter -- well, that's just flat-out wrong.
Posted by: JD at Jan 26, 2006 11:00:26 PM
Frey only did what any self-promoting opportunist would do in order to sell more books. Reality is sometimes so much more mundane than the imagination. Reality sometimes just doesn't sell books as well as fiction. However, it isn't so much the embellishments and outright fabrications that I take offense to. It's his portrayal of drug addiction as a weakness and something one can overcome by themselves. The overwhelming breadth of research indicates that addiction is not simply overcome by one's own will power even with the help of family, counselors, friends, etc. A "higher power" is essential in the process of recovery. There simply isn't any getting around it. Frey dismisses this totally, having utter contempt for the role of a "higher power"/God in the process. His portrayal of recovery is delusional and would only serve to hinder the recovery process in a true addict who might reject a 12 step program. Like it or not, 12 step programs are really the only truly effective forms of treatment in addiction recovery.
To promote such a work in such a prominent way by such a prominent person as Oprah is quite irresponsible. Such an endorsement, again, could lead addicts to reject 12 step programs thereby hindering, delaying and even outright preventing recovery.
The embellishments, falsehoods and fabrications makes me seriously wonder whether this man was truly even an addict. A good liar can be pretty convincing, even when it comes to the details of dealing with addiction.
At least good liars make good salesmen and Frey has done a very good job of turning many people into suckers, including Winfrey herself. As attributed to P.T. Barnum, the implication is that suckers are easy to find. That would seem to be the case here.
Posted by: Jeff at Jan 27, 2006 12:27:34 AM
I read Frey's book - found it riveting, and honestly don't really care how much/which parts of it are true; in my [humble] opinion, it was a great piece of literature regardless of it's origins...What I am offended by, however, is that so many people (starting with TSG, followed by Oprah, CNN/Larry King, and every other major cable and news channel in the country) are so concerned with one man/author's alleged fabrications in a book he has written, but not so concerned with exposing the blatant LIES being told to us by our own government on a daily basis - lies and half-truths that have cost thousands of human lives (and continue losing more by the day!!) in a war supposedly over: INITIALLY - WMD (which were never found)[tactic: scare the public about national security], THEN about freeing Iraq from a horrible dictator [tactic: tug on Americans' heart strings with stories of torture by Sadam]despite the fact that it is not our job to save the world (not to mention that it is also not the reason we were given before going to war), THEN it was about "protecting Americans from terrorists 'OVER THERE' so we don't have to 'do it here'..." (tactic: scare the shit out of all Americans so as to ensure that the president will be given carte blanche - no questions asked - to do whatever he wants, including keep sending our poor soldiers over there to die for no good reason)...Finally, to ensure that no one questions the president/government on anything they do regarding Iraq, they call anyone who disagrees with what they are doing "unpatriotic" and make allegations that those who don't agree with the war "do not support the troops"....I believe that the above-mentioned Frey investigators' time would be much better spent uncovering the lies we are being told daily by those in charge of our country, as these lies are far more detrimental - and have far graver consequences - than some author's alleged fabrications regarding his stint in rehab....!!!
Posted by: Maura at Jan 27, 2006 1:38:12 AM
Education, laws, politics, social programs, etc, are based on the perception of real human experiences. If Frey's work is perceived by millions as truth while in fact almost a complete fabrication, then decisions and social changes influenced by it have false premises. Not good for cultural survival.
We should demand that non-fiction is non-fiction just as we demand that scientists do not falsify their data to get fame or a bigger grant, as has recently happened in genetics and nanotechnology.
Posted by: Russ at Jan 27, 2006 5:42:23 AM
I will never watch the Oprah Show again, after her harsh treatment to James yesterday.Who the hell does she think she is?? She made me so mad! I don't care if he "embellished" or lied because the story came from what he recalled. I am certain that all non-fiction memoirs have embellishements and lies. People need to get a life and focus on more important things going on around them.
James, you will get through this. Be strong!
Posted by: Linda M at Jan 27, 2006 6:08:28 AM
I still love the book and James Frey, I think he is amazing and I think it took More Guts to go back on Oprah's show. I'd like to see Oprah start on our politicans for there truths and lies...
Posted by: sherry at Jan 27, 2006 6:37:47 AM
