Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey

AmentsChick wrote:

Thanks for that! Sorry, Trix, I should've done a search.


It really frustrates me that people judge him and don't even know the details. Yes, he made up some stuff ... but it's not as thought the entire book was a fabrication...small things were changed (i.e. the amount of time he was in jail).

He's a damn good writer and I wish people would learn the truth behind his "lies".

more than small changes were made. while he did get the self-loathing of addiction right, entire scenes within the book were completely fabricated and it paints a very very false and dangerous picture of recovering from addiction. the entire ending was so much bullshit i wanted to throw the damn thing through a window.

that said, i don't think he takes the full blame for it. from what i've heard, he brought it to his publishers as fiction and they wanted to sell it as memoir. i think he was dealt with unfairly. as a novel, it's somewhat entertaining, though incredibly farfetched. as an accurate account of addiction and recovery, it's about as accurate as the "reefer madness" video they used to scare kids off.

Collin wrote:

So you mean it's totally trustworthy, accurate and the complete truth?

yes*

*in the governmental sense of the word, which means lies, distortion, and self-aggrandizing propaganda to the rest of us

I liked it.