More on Mr. Frey

And the controversy rolls on... Only a day after James Frey's publisher, Doubleday (a division of Random house), was quick to defend him and his memoir, Random House today said they would offer refunds to readers who purchased the book directly from the publisher. Absurd! Ok, fine, let's say it parts of it were fabricated, that doesn't mean you get your money back! You didn't sign a little agreement that said I am reading this under the conditions that every word is true and if this guy is a Fraud even for a second, I want a refund-- even if the story is great. What's more, the article indicates that Random House told other readers who didn't buy directly from the publisher to try returning their books to the bookstore for a refund! Oh man, Borders and Barnes are going to love this! As a rebuttal to this and other published stories, Random House posted the following on their website:

January 11, 2006
Contrary to erroneous published reports, Random House, Inc. is not offering a special refund on A Million Little Pieces.
It has long been standard Random House Inc procedure to direct consumers who want a refund on any of the tens of thousands of books we publish back to their retail place of purchase, unless they purchased the book directly from us in which case we refund it. Yesterday we had 15 calls to our customer service line specific to A Million Little Pieces and fewer than that today.

Um, I don't get it. Are you or aren't you offering a refund? Either way, it's clear that some people are WAY overreacting to this. Fine, get upset and be disappointed about what's come out, but don't try and get your $14.95 back when just a minute ago this was your favorite book. People are silly. This is all so silly.

James Frey appeared on Larry King Live this evening to clear the air, but to nobody's surprise, he basically talked around in circles for an hour, never directly admitting "Ok, I wasn't actually in jail for 3 months" or facing up to other specific claims made by The Smoking Gun. Parts of the interview were awkward, namely the fact that yeah, Frey was being called out on fabricating parts of his book, albeit small parts, but it was uncomfortable nevertheless. All things considered, I think Frey handled himself well, particularly with a couple of the things Larry King posed to him. When they were discussing another author whose book had also come under fire, King said, "Oh but he also committed suicide... [awkward silence]... I'm not suggesting that you..." [trails off]. At certain moments I thought Frey wanted to jump across the table and grab him by the throat (I felt a bit of "the Fury" rising). Or at least stop answering the same questions over and over again, then yet again by butt-kissing callers. The best part was at the end of the hour when the show was supposed to be over and Queen of the World Oprah calls the line, cuts into Anderson Cooper 360, and goes live on the air to give her schpeel. You could almost see the Freys (James & his mother) singing Hallelujah in their heads. Oprah's here to save the day. She still loves the book, still thinks it's fabulous even if James didn't exactly drive up on a curb and hit a police officer or whatever else. Oprah gets the last word, and tonight she basically said This book still has my enthusiastic endorsement (read: if by some miracle you haven't heard of this book yet, go out and buy yourself a copy and read it because I said so).

To conclude, I'll say this: I finished My Friend Leonard (not "best" friend, as Larry King mistakenly repeated) today after 2 straight days of reading it whenever I had a free moment. Despite all this brouhaha, I still absolutely love(d) it and highly recommend it. Both A Million Little Pieces followed by My Friend Leonard stand as two of the best books I've ever read, and I only wish I hadn't read them yet so I could start over and be as moved and affected as I was the first time around. Now I can't wait for Frey's next work. Fiction or memoir or nonfiction or whatever he wants to call it.