ugh.

i started reading a million little pieces over christmas break '05, and just could not get into it... i thought the writing was awful and cheesy and overwhelmingly pretentious. i remember throwing the book down and growling to my sister about how unbelievable the characters were and the dialogue was and that it was a lot 'o hokey bullsh*t. (god, i wish i could find my copy so i could give you some of the toe-curling examples) it actually made me angry to read it, but i'm stubborn about finishing books. mind you, this is before everyone knew the book was a fabrication... so either i've got a finely tuned bs-radar or i'm an insensitive asshole. anyways, i was less than surprised when the whole scandal broke on the smoking gun just weeks later. i shrugged, no longer felt committed to reading more of the drivel and moved on.

i guess where i'm going with this is that i don't completely understand the whole consumer fraud lawsuit concerning the book. i suppose it has to do, in part, with the fact that i never got emotionally invested in james frey. i didn't turn the last page, put the book down and think "wow, that was so powerful..." maybe if i had cried real tears for james, like oprah did, i might have felt violated to find out is was all a lie. here's the thing though, if you enjoyed the book and it moved you, how much does it really matter, in the final analysis, if it's fiction or non-fiction? can you really retroactively say that you didn't like it? "it was an amazing non-fiction story, but as fiction it doesn't work for me." if you were inspired or entertained, you still got your money's worth, right?

if you want a really moving story about alcoholism, read augusten burrough's dry.