just one of a countless many in this world.  So WHY has a " A Million Little Pieces" become the be all end all  proverbial red headed stepchild of the literary world?  PLEASE don't tell me it's because Oprah says so.  Here is my feeling about the whole mess.

1. It was stupid to call the thing an out and out memoir.  He should have just been upfront about the fact that it is essentially a work of fiction based on his former reality.  It's not like it would be the first book ever published of it's kind.   Hell just use the standard" Some names, dates and events have been fictionalized to protect the identities of the people and for dramatic effect"  Hell I've seen that piece of legal scroll past my eyes on many a cinematic closing credit. 

2. I personally think that the whole bring James Frey on to the Oprah show thing, was more about spin that anything else.  She's not stupid, she probably meant what she said when she called Larry King Live.  To me she looks like more of a fool because she pledged her support then turned around and brought him to her show and ripped him a new one for the viewing pleasure of millions.  ( I'm surprised that it's not sweeps, because this shit read like a serious publicity...ratings stunt to me.)  It was just ugly.

3.  The Publisher should have done some fact checking. Bottom line, it's the way it should be. If Journalists have to check and verify facts for a piece that may only run once...a Publisher of books should have to do the same for something that will be reproduced by the millions.  It's only right.

4. This Oprah thing...it's urkin the shit out of me.  Does she honestly believe that this is the first thing that she had endorsed, or person that she has promoted that was full of shit?  Give me a break. She hocked liquid diets like they were the gospel back in the day...had women every where drinking their breakfast and lunch.  Shit happens.  She needs to get good with the fact that we all make mistakes.  No one is perfect.  That doesn't give any of us the right to publicly humiliate a person/I mean DAMN she looked at him like he was a piece of shit on the bottom of her shoe.  IT'S NOT THAT DEEP O!  Breathe, shake, relax and LET IT GO! " I'm embarrassed..."  Who cares.

5. The book for better or for worse helped people.  At least it wasn't a Hollywood or Capitol Hill expose that ruined actual people's lives with lies.  It moved many, in that regard my hat is off to Mr.Frey.

6. And this is the good one...HELLO!  People, lest we not  get stupid and believe that this is the only book ever written where the Author has taken liberties with the content.   At this very moment there are probably countless books in book stores, libraries and personal book cases the world over that are called Biographies, Autobiographies and Memoirs that preach triumph over adversity, hope in hopeless situations, redemption for the unforgivable...and no one has a clue that they are bogus.  Is the crime here that Mr.Frey embellished, which every day people do when they tell stories (the classic: I caught a huge fish this weekend story, when in fact it was a guppy...) OR is the issue that he got caught?  OR Better yet, is it that Oprah put her ass on the line and her label on it and got blasted?  Hmmmmm, I think it's a combination of getting caught and Ms. O needing to save face. I mean after all the Queen of Media can't get caught sleeping on the job.  What ever shall we do? OH DEAR!

 I don't condone what he did, but it happened.  I honestly think all the hype is just just that, hype.  It's over the top.  Like I's said a few times in this entry, he's not alone.  He just had the misfortune of having a powerhouse of a public figure in the middle of this mess when the truth came out.   I bet he wishes he never got that call " Hi James, it's Oprah Winfrey and I want your book to be my book club book!"  Betcha wish ya had a time machine James...

I pray that this poor fool doesn't have a nervous break down behind this.  This is the kind of stuff that can break a person.  No one deserves to be broken down like that.  He wrote a book, a great one, a vivid one.  He got stupid and got caught.  But SHIT...it's just a book!