Nothin' to see here, people, move along. Ok, if you insist on staying, atleast take your shoes off and make yourself comfortable. Once I get started...well, you could be here for a while. (Just ignore the typos. I do.) Yes, snacks are allowed as long as you share and clean up after yourself. Oh yeah, hey...if you happen to see my scissors around here, could you let me know. I could have sworn I had them right here a minute ago.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Whoa....someone is in hot water!
James Frey is getting his ass kicked by Oprah right now.....this is getting really good!
HOLY COW!!! I totally missed it! What happened, what happened????? Do tell...I wasn't home to catch up on any of the latest. Yes, I'm one nosey person.
Oh Oprah just let him have it and he admitted that a few things in the book were lies...basically everything that thesmokinggun.com stated. She said she was really embarrassed about it and she even had his publisher on with them...and she gave her hell too. It was glorious. For the record though, I really liked the book.
I think that his publishers or someone told him to say it was a memoir so it would get published. It is a shame that the publisher would not publish it when it tried to sell it as Fiction but when he said that it was about his life they published it. To me it does not matter, it is still a really good sorry.
I don't think that is correct Cindy. Where did you hear that? From what I gather, he presented it as a true life story and did not hint once that it may have some fictional moments in it. I personally think it was an inspiring book also but part of the power of it was the underlying stress of the truth, which was far from the facts. I would not have enjoyed the book as much if I had known it was fictionalized. I put the blame on Frey for knowing what he was doing when he presented it and to the publishers for not fact checking. This whole mess could have been avoided, all they needed to do was put a disclaimer at the end of the book, listing where he used artistic liscense. I would have been happy with that.
from watching cnn last night it wouldnt surprise me if he wasnt an addict or alcoholic. he may have fabricated everything.in the book he is against AA.Alot of people have been helped by AA.if he wasnt as bad as he says he shouldnt bash AA. im having trouble finishing the book. i havent got to lilys sucide snd i already know that she didnt hang herself.
I finally caught up with all the hoopla going's on, and I must say that it was sad that he had to lie. BUT, I think he should get some cool points for coming on Oprah's show and saying, yeah, I lied. I don't think many people would have done that, to go back and have to admit that on public television. I can think of many people who I would love to see get on tv and claim that they lied. He could have bowed out and went into hiding. I did hear that the book is really good though. I've just had too many others on my list and haven't gotten to it yet.
Actually, James Frey did originally shop it around to publishers as fiction but no one bit and memoirs were so hot at the time that he decided to go ahead and push it as a memoir (because parts were fact based). Technically memoir isn't complete "non-fiction", like a biography, by definition "An account of the personal experiences of an author". The reason he got in trouble is because he flat out made stuff up, he didn't just tell it from his memory he fabricated complete scenarios. In my opininion he helped a lot of people with his book--it spoke to them which is what I think the best writing does. He's not Jayson Blair out and out selling lies as hard news. If Oprah hadn't picked it as a book club selection then this hoopla wouldn't be as big as it is. Katherine Harris wrote a "memoir" about having an affair with her father a few years ago but she didn't name anything anyone could specifically check up on so people let it lie--but many doubted it was all true. James Frey's mistake was lying about things that could be investigated. At the end of the day it's more publicity for his work. He lives with his wife and kid in a really nice place downtown (NYC)--not bad for a former drug addict on the brink of death (which I don't think he lied about, because his parents don't seem like habitual liars as well). I thought the work was interesting. Anyways that's my 2 cents worth.
Indeed, but I still liked the book, but I'm sure I would have liked it less if had known that it was not entirely true. I think that was part of the pull, that it could be that over the top and still true. Oh well, it led me to read My Friend Leonard.
James Frey is getting his ass kicked by Oprah right now.....this is getting really good!
8 comments:
HOLY COW!!! I totally missed it! What happened, what happened????? Do tell...I wasn't home to catch up on any of the latest. Yes, I'm one nosey person.
Oh Oprah just let him have it and he admitted that a few things in the book were lies...basically everything that thesmokinggun.com stated. She said she was really embarrassed about it and she even had his publisher on with them...and she gave her hell too. It was glorious. For the record though, I really liked the book.
I think that his publishers or someone told him to say it was a memoir so it would get published. It is a shame that the publisher would not publish it when it tried to sell it as Fiction but when he said that it was about his life they published it. To me it does not matter, it is still a really good sorry.
I don't think that is correct Cindy. Where did you hear that? From what I gather, he presented it as a true life story and did not hint once that it may have some fictional moments in it. I personally think it was an inspiring book also but part of the power of it was the underlying stress of the truth, which was far from the facts. I would not have enjoyed the book as much if I had known it was fictionalized. I put the blame on Frey for knowing what he was doing when he presented it and to the publishers for not fact checking. This whole mess could have been avoided, all they needed to do was put a disclaimer at the end of the book, listing where he used artistic liscense. I would have been happy with that.
from watching cnn last night it wouldnt surprise me if he wasnt an addict or alcoholic. he may have fabricated everything.in the book he is against AA.Alot of people have been helped by AA.if he wasnt as bad as he says he shouldnt bash AA. im having trouble finishing the book. i havent got to lilys sucide snd i already know that she didnt hang herself.
I finally caught up with all the hoopla going's on, and I must say that it was sad that he had to lie. BUT, I think he should get some cool points for coming on Oprah's show and saying, yeah, I lied. I don't think many people would have done that, to go back and have to admit that on public television. I can think of many people who I would love to see get on tv and claim that they lied. He could have bowed out and went into hiding. I did hear that the book is really good though. I've just had too many others on my list and haven't gotten to it yet.
Actually, James Frey did originally shop it around to publishers as fiction but no one bit and memoirs were so hot at the time that he decided to go ahead and push it as a memoir (because parts were fact based). Technically memoir isn't complete "non-fiction", like a biography, by definition "An account of the personal experiences of an author". The reason he got in trouble is because he flat out made stuff up, he didn't just tell it from his memory he fabricated complete scenarios. In my opininion he helped a lot of people with his book--it spoke to them which is what I think the best writing does. He's not Jayson Blair out and out selling lies as hard news. If Oprah hadn't picked it as a book club selection then this hoopla wouldn't be as big as it is. Katherine Harris wrote a "memoir" about having an affair with her father a few years ago but she didn't name anything anyone could specifically check up on so people let it lie--but many doubted it was all true. James Frey's mistake was lying about things that could be investigated. At the end of the day it's more publicity for his work. He lives with his wife and kid in a really nice place downtown (NYC)--not bad for a former drug addict on the brink of death (which I don't think he lied about, because his parents don't seem like habitual liars as well). I thought the work was interesting. Anyways that's my 2 cents worth.
Indeed, but I still liked the book, but I'm sure I would have liked it less if had known that it was not entirely true. I think that was part of the pull, that it could be that over the top and still true. Oh well, it led me to read My Friend Leonard.
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