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Yesterday, Oprah Winfrey admitted she made a mistake (gasp!) and took James Frey and his publisher, Nan A. Talese, to task for making her look foolish on her show. Yes, Oprah defended the readers' right to know if something peddled as truth is false, but mainly, Oprah was ashamed that she had embarrassed herself by defending A Million Little Pieces. [You can order the tape and/or transcript that amazing hour of televsion here.] Gothamist then realized that in fact, our own Josh Abraham had spoken to Frey for an interview last year! Check out these answers from June 14, 2005:
I think most people would be shocked to discover that the David Schwimmer romantic comedy Kissing a Fool came from the same gritty memoirist they've read. How do you creatively reconcile such diverse work?James Frey really did victimize all of us - right now, Thompson the cat is having an explosive case of diarrhea all over My Friend Leonard. Gothamist would like Oprah to personally remove the "Oprah's Book Club" sticker from every single book out there - she can wear her Valentino and diamond rocks, but we want her elbow-to-elbow with Barnes and Noble staffers. No word on whether or not James Frey had to be protected from rabid Oprah fans.
I got paid to write Kissing a Fool, and it was movie money, made from working on those types of films, that allowed me to write a book. No different than working any type of job while trying to work on something better.How do you connect (or disconnect) with gruesome details of your past when writing? Is it temporal distance or emotional separation -- or something else -- that gives you the proper perspective when describing past pains?
I try to keep a distance from the events, which helps me write about them more honestly and more fairly. I also have no desire to connect, or re-connect, to most the feelings involved. Neither book was cathartic to write, nor did I want them or expect them to be.Are you tired of journalists asking if you regret any past comments?
Most of the journalists who ask about it haven't checked to see what I actually said. Answering questions about shit I didn't say is a pain in my ass.
Did you watch the Oprah episode? What did you think? Also, we expect to see this as a Law & Order Criminal Intent episode. And Gawker on James Frey - we saw the Anderson Cooper 360 segment on the scandal last night, and is Larry King annoying!
Update: Blog NYC has clips of the show - check 'em out.
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Who cares. Oprah is not shot in New York. This has NOTHING to do with New York.
Let's face it, whether or not the book is fiction or non-fiction, it was still an entertaining read. Give the poor guy a break. He's a former crackhead trying to turn his life around by writing. Sheesh!
I honestly don't understand why everyone is so worked up over this? Does the book somehow become less interesting/entertaining just because it's not real? If it were released as fiction maybe Oprah wouldn't have picked it for her book club, but it would still have been a best seller IMO. People need to relax.
Oprah is omnipowerful - and James Frey is a New York author now. And it's a book a lot of people are reading here. We're narrow, but not that narrow - we will be talking about the Super Bowl, for instance.
While the book is entertaining, would it have been something you wouuld have slogged through if it were fiction? I think that's the big question. What's funny is that when pundits are saying publishing houses should hire factcheckers, it just seems like trying to put a bandaid on a gaping chest wound. It's bigger than that - it's about how people are marketed.
Did anyone see "The Last Days of Disco" and remember when Chloe Sevigny's character who works at a publishing house finds out her book from like the Dalai Lama's brother is a fake? And she sells it as something else? It's just about changing labels - I bet there will be non-fictin books that are "as remembered/conjured/made up by."
The big issue is that as a memoir, it was acceptable. The insipid writing. The MOR Chuck Palahniuk style. All acceptable. Why? Because it was supposedly real.
Take away the reality, and it's just bad writing.
And most importantlty, the guy has gotten rich beyond even most first-time writers expectations based on this book of junk.
It's also morally reprehensible since he inserted himself in the tragic events of real people who did suffer and die... But he was never there! The guy is a pathological liar and the success of this book is a reward to him.
There are tons of manuscripts out there that never see the light of day that are based on more reality than Frey's work. The crime is that his junk gets the press while the compelling real real-life stories of others get ignored and pushed aside.
The frat boy ponce should get everything he deserves for this.
Not the most probing interview from gothamist. Do you really feel duped based on the responses you posted?
I agree, what's the big deal? Does it really matter if it's fiction or non-fiction? I guess people find some sick joy in knowing terrible things actually happen to people. Sort of like the popularity of reality tv.
I didn't read it, but isn't the Frey style simply the classic college entry essay style. He seems to me to be the traditional post-boomer hardship hustler that I meet on occasion. When did Oprah become the literary giant of the western world? Maybe it's better Oprah than the NYT sunday book review. I hope Oprah has more cage matches with public figures.
"I guess people find some sick joy in knowing terrible things actually happen to people."
??? Wow. James Frey inserted himself in the real life tragedy of a car-meets-train accident, it's revealed he was never there and you're not blinking.
Amazing.
I think James Frey has taken the "sick joy" out of the deaths of others by placing himself in those situations and gaining fame/fortune from it.
The guy is a liar. Plain and simple. And even when compared to the bravado of known literary exaggerators like Hemingway, Frey is still a liar.
His book was indeed marketed and crafted by someone attempting to appeal to the reality TV loving world. Frey is a failed screenwriter, you know.
Dude is a fake. And he took the money. That's the deal.
This whole thing just needs to die. It's creating more publicity for both of them and that is not a good thing. Besides, Oprah is NOT from NYC. Move along..nothing to see (or read) here.
memoirs, like documentaries, are not pieces of journalism. their responsibility is not to the audience and not to journalistic integrity. first and foremost, they are pieces of art. their responsibility is to the artist's experience. in the case of an artist who may be a compulsive liar, or at best, an incredibly insecure man who feels it necessary to embellish his bravery even to himself, the account is pretty muddy. But people should not be looking to memoirists for unbiast fact reporting. that is naive.
"But people should not be looking to memoirists for unbiast fact reporting. that is naive."
The guy claims he had a hardcore jail experience for about 3 months when the reality is barely spent 5 hours in custody.
We all know about writer's license and taking liberties, but when you spent less than a day in jail and then claim your some hardcore con, you're simply full of sh-t.
What everyone has failed to mention is the fact that he originally shopped the book as fiction ergo the publishers pushed for a memoir to push a couple (mill) extra bucks. This issue at hand isn't about whether it lacks authenticy now that it is declared basically 'fiction,'(which is totally does) this is an issue about yet another corrupt industry-the publishing industry. The whole debacle lends itself to question every memoir that has ever been written; the truth is now in question more than ever before and we should turn our backs on Frey for spearheading this upheaveal.
And by the way, I noticed a [not] surprising overwhelming number of people on the subway/bus commute this morning just starting to read the damn book. DAMMIT PEOPLE WAKE UP!
What everyone has failed to mention is the fact that he originally shopped the book as fiction ergo the publishers pushed for a memoir to push a couple (mill) extra bucks. This issue at hand isn't about whether it lacks authenticity now that it is declared basically 'fiction,'(which it totally does) this is an issue about yet another corrupt industry-the publishing industry. Join the ranks of reality TV, the diamond industry, cotton, meat-packing the list goes on and on and on. Oprah did the right thing bringing both Frey and his publisher to the table and calling them out; they are both equally in the wrong and. The whole debacle lends itself to question every memoir that has ever been written; the truth is now in question more than ever before and we should turn our backs on Frey for spearheading this upheaveal.
And by the way, I noticed a [not] surprising overwhelming number of people on the subway/bus commute this morning just starting to read the damn book. PEOPLE WAKE UP!
I love that all the Frey hoopla has masked the most absurd comment from yesterday's episode. It came from Oprah's own mouth, regarding the next Book Club title:
"... because I didn't think people would want to read Night during the Christmas holidays"
True, memoirs aren't unbiased reporting. We don't have perfect recall and we would all probably shade some facts here and there. But it is one thing to have a fuzzy memory and quite another to fabricate your life out of thin air.
Kudos to Orpah for getting someone admit to lies on TV! (Although -- how can anyone be surprised to hear a drug addict lied?)
NOT if she could only get some people from the White House to admit to lies.
This doesn't make sense. Did this happen in NYC??
No, but Frey lives in NYC and, as the post points out, was interviewed on this very site. If nothing else, this post qualifies as a followup to the original Gothamist interview.
Thanks--I was asking a question, that's all.
There are bigger fish for Oprah to fry than a writer telling lies in his novel. That's nothing new. Why doesn't Oprah chastise the Bush administration for lying about facts that led us into a war that has gotten thousands of americans killed and wounded?
That stupid bitch should get off her high horse. Some quick turnaround; wasn't she on King last week defending the guy!?!
"Most writers are full of shit. That's what the creation of art is."
Hillarious! Some of the greatest art in the world is great because of their raw honesty and truth. Hack artists are filled with pretense. Real artists are truly honest. If you start to do research on some of the great minds of artists in this world you'll find they are often stripped of pretension and are so painfully human it's transcendent.
"It's just that you were approaching this with naivete."
It was sold and marketed as a memoir and even after the initial busting of his lies on the Smoking Gun, Frey's first instinct was to threaten lawsuits and repeatedly say "He stands by what he wrote..."
There's art and there's lies. "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" have stood the test of time because they are both honest and real. Anne Frank's book was private and personal; she had no ambitions of getting coverage by NYC literatti to say the least. Malcolm X was young, angry and eloquent and the book's amazing because it gives you a real perspective of a real human being's struggle with racism and his ideas of how to deal with it.
Frey's book was--and is--a flash in the pan. It would have been forgotten in a few years anyway; he's not a good writer to begin with.
Let's not forget that when he was on Larry King he was there with his mom who was talking about what a good kid he was. Man, that's one tough guy. Gets busted, then goes on national TV with his mom to back him up. How hardcore is that?
What a joke that guy is.