Tiffany Haynes

My family is full of readers: my mom, the librarian, my sister, the book hog ; my dad, the newspaper reader , I just read what my mom and sister tell me is good.

My mom heard several people say “the book was hard to get into” or “not something they could relate to, ” when they were describing “A Million Little Pieces” by James Frey.

After I heard my sister raving about this book, I knew I had to read it.

“A Million Little Pieces” is one of those books that you just can’t put down.

Frey paints a vivid picture of himself drinking and using drugs for years. Frey can remember getting drunk for the first time at age ten. He started using marijuana at age 12. By the time he was 15 he was using cocaine, acid and anything that he could find. At those young ages he used, sold and steals to support his habits. His self-destructive habits continued, for years, landing him in a rehab facility at age 18.

Frey described the people he met in rehab, how he feltabout 12- step programs and how hefelt about himself.

Frey wrotehe felt likeleaving the treatment facitility, he felt that he did not deserve to be given a second chance. He didn’t know whether it would be better to be alive and not be able to abuse alcohol and drugs, or to be dead. Frey described the rage that brewed and bubbled inside his soul when he was with his parents or when he was confronted.

Frey has been arrested in three states and has skipped bail in all.

Frey tells of being arrested in Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio. In Michigan and North Carolina ,Frey is wanted for misdemeanor possession. He will not have to serve time in jail in either state, and his record would be cleared in three years. However, in Ohio, Frey was wanted for hitting a cop with his car. Frey describes his how he disrespected police when they came to take him away. When the Ohio police attempted to get Frey out of his car he wrote he started swinging at them. In retaliation, the police beat him with clubs and arrested him.

“As they hauled me away kicking and screaming, I tried to get the crowd to attack them and free me, which didn’t happen,” he wrote. He woke up in jail, and was arraigned on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, assaulting a police officer, felony DUI, disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, driving without a license, driving without insurance, attempted incitement of a riot, possession of a narcotic with intent to distribute and felony mayhem. The small town in Ohio wants Frey to go to a state prison for three years, be on probation for five years, pay $15,000 in fines, do 1,000 hours of community service and have his driving privileges permanently revoked in the state of Ohio.

Later, thanks to his friend a Federal judge, Frey only has to spend three to six months in a county jail.

Frey met Leonard, a mobster, who had so much faith in Frey that eventually Frey began to have faith in himself.

Lily, Frey’s girlfriend who he has met in treatment, believes in Frey so much that he begins to trust again.

When Frey is released from the treatment facility, he went to jail, but first he tested himself at a bar. He ordered a big drink and just stareed at it. From then on, he knew that he was stronger than alcohol and drugs and he could do whatever he put his mind to.

Throughout this entire book Frey portrays a feeling of courage and friendship is portrayed. This book is amazing, after reading it, I knew that I would probably never face anything that Frey had faced, but I knew that I could handle anything that was thrown my way.

Overall, I would give this book five stars, it sends a powerful message of about how strong a person can be when they have to be.

That being said, I do have to say that disappointment has surrounded me the last couple of days. Sadly, it has been reported that not everything in “A Million Little Pieces” is true. Frey boasts of his stunts in Ohio, and how he had all these charges filed against him. According to thesmokinggun.com the closest Frey ever came to going to jail was spending a couple of hours in a jail cell in Ohio, waiting for a friend to post $733 in bail. Ohio police described Frey as “cooperative and polite.”

After finding out these disturbing details, I now question the book that I thought was so amazing. I have recommended this book to anyone who reads for pleasure. Now, Frey has made me look like an idiot for buying into his fictias past.

I still recommend this book and its sequel “My Friend Leonard”, but I would suggest reading the book with a grain of salt and the word “fiction” in the back of your mind.