A Million Little Lies
Internet scams are a dime a dozen. Phony this and phony that - it's become a part of dealing with the pseudo-anonymous nature of the web. But the latest scandal of lies and fabrication is not on the Internet, it's on the bookshelves in millions of American homes. The million little lies is contained within the covers of the blockbuster book, A Million Little Pieces by James Frey.
The Smoking Gun, an investigative website owned by Court TV, blew the story of fraud and deception wide open for all to read Monday night. (If you have the stomach for it - read the whole story here.) It is an excellent piece of investigative journalism. There is no doubt, after reading the piece, that James Frey turned a novel, which he was unable to sell, into a memoir and made a bundle - on a lie.
In these times of scrutiny of the Internet and wondering what is, and is not, true and credible, we are confronted with a huge fraud in the world of good old-fashioned book publishing. No, it's not the first time readers have been had by a book that turned out to be fabrication, but this is quite possibly the most brazen fraud in modern publishing history.
Arrests, drug use, Mafia friends, responsibility for the death of High School friends, events at Hazelden rehabilitation clinic, on and on and on. Lies. Lies bought by three and a half million people to keep the book atop the New York Times Non-Fiction paperback bestseller list for 15 weeks. This is a sad and sordid story of a man who pulled a fast one on his publisher, Doubleday, and on millions of readers who shed tears over the million little pieces of his disturbing - but fabricated - life story.
Shameful.
It would appear that this character, Frey, would be a GOOD candidate for Mr. Kottler's sequel.
Keep up the good work. I hit your site daily in my "digital solitude".
Posted by: Davey | January 11, 2006 at 09:42 PM