Hello, I’d like to share my James Frey experience with you all…

My housemate works for a publishing company. This means 5 nights out of 7 she returns from work describing the latest exciting plot line or unexpected twist from her favourite up and coming book… I do try and listen but the information just seems to seep out and away before I’ve had chance to process it. I think I may just be a bad housemate.

Anyway, that’s how a copy of A Million Little Pieces ended up lying on our coffee table one morning. I didn’t know anything about the book (although I’m sure I had been well informed) so I picked it up with no preconceptions or real idea of it’s content.

I was hooked straight away by the writing style, the content and the obviously the story. A few of my other housemates had read the book around the same time so, being the highly intellectual beings we are, conversations/debates/arguments often came up about the story. I guess we all had fairly strong opinions about the book once the Oprah controversy occurred. I personally don’t think it taints the book as much as it has been suggested- it’s a brilliant, engrossing read and it allowed me the escapism that every book should.

When the opportunity came up to take part in the publisher’s discussion group about the books I jumped at the chance.

The idea was to discuss A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard in a concise and intelligent manner whilst being recorded for a John Murray promotional video. I’m not sure whether I was particularly concise or insightful but some of the other participants had great points, so we all just jumped in and chatted away. The fact we were being filmed throughout the duration didn’t seem to put anyone off, in fact everyone contributed evenly to the discussion and it remained quite a light hearted debate. The evening actually lasted a while longer than anticipated but I don’t think anyone was bothered by this, we all got so involved in the discussion (and beverages!) the time flew by.

Anyway, James Frey is a great contemporary author and if you haven’t already checked out his work you should.

James Weaver