The man who conned Oprah

[AlCzervik]

Did anybody else see this guy on her show? She's going to pissed if this is true.

Three months ago, in what the talk show host termed a "radical departure," Winfrey announced that "A Million Little Pieces," author James Frey's nonfiction memoir of his vomit-caked years as an alcoholic, drug addict, and criminal, was her latest selection for the world's most powerful book club.
In an October 26 show entitled "The Man Who Kept Oprah Awake At Night," Winfrey hailed Frey's graphic and coarse book as "like nothing you've ever read before. Everybody at Harpo is reading it. When we were staying up late at night reading it, we'd come in the next morning saying, 'What page are you on?'" In emotional filmed testimonials, employees of Winfrey's Harpo Productions lauded the book as revelatory, with some choking back tears. When the camera then returned to a damp-eyed Winfrey, she said, "I'm crying 'cause these are all my Harpo family so, and we all loved the book so much."
But 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. Next to the latest Harry Potter title, Nielsen BookScan reported Friday, Frey's book sold more copies in the U.S. in 2005--1.77 million--than any other title, with the majority of that total coming after Winfrey's selection.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0104061jamesfrey1.html

[jane_pippin]

1. Stop the presses: David Sedaris stories not totally true!!!

I read the book a week or two ago, and while I'm sure parts of it were exaggerated for effect or perhaps incidents were consolidated, people morphed into one, etc., I think it's a great book and it deserves to be read. This isn't all that uncommon in the world of memoirs, I would imagine.

That's my two cents.

[Shell Beau]

2. So strange, my friend was just telling me

about this particular book at lunch. I was telling her I am almost through with the book I am currently reading and need to get a new one. She said Oprah had talked about this book and it was definitely worth the read.