A Million Little Pieces- James Frey

Books that come with endorsements from Oprah’s book club tend to receive very little of my attention, rightly or wrongly. Luckily I saw a clip of the author being harassed by Oprah for passing fiction off as fact and then striking him off her ‘approved list‘ so I mentally peeled the sticker off and dived right in.

23-year-old James is admitted to a drug rehab centre in pretty poor shape, covered with a colourful selection of his own bodily fluids, missing his front teeth and with a hole through his cheek. He’s been at the chemicals for a good few years and has hit rock bottom. The book takes you through his six weeks at the centre at breakneck pace in first person, present tense and it’s hard to put down from the very start. I have to admit there is one section I didn’t read though; When he’s having root canal work done with no anaesthetic I had to skip a few pages there. Rest assured what I pictured in my head had to be worse than whatever he actually wrote there. Jesus…

You find yourself admiring him for his rebelliousness and steadfast refusal to follow the 12 steps and the self-delusion necessary to follow them. For someone who’s at his lowest ebb, he presents a heroic character. He is resolute and uncompromising, obviously quite a contrast to his former self. Despite not following all the rules in the center, he makes progress and even offers others a chance for the same salvation.

This story is about personal choice, responsibility and offers a logical, braver and God-free alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous. Whether it’s all true or not only matters if you’re reading it as a self-help guide. As a literary work, it’s deserves to be up there and above with Dave Egger’s A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius another first person memoir with interludes of fantasy.