A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

An essential part of writing creative non-fiction is writing as truthfully as possible. This allows readers to better trust the author. Readers expect that the author will recount events as accurately as possible, or choose to market their writing as another genre. Sometimes writers choose to ignore this. Even with the best intentions, this is deceptive to the reader. Such trickery can turn even the most strong and powerful stories, stories with a message of hope for readers into crackpot writing that serves no other purpose other than to create controversy. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey is one of these cases. The author shares his riveting story of overcoming drug addiction to avoid an early death, forbidden and overwhelming love, and emotional reconnection with friends and family.

Frey chooses to write the story without the use of quotation marks. When a new thought begins, a new line on the paper begins. Oftentimes, there is a lack of punctuation to distinguish the different thoughts and lines from different characters. However, this style also enables him to make his thoughts come alive, to share his inner dialogue with readers. The imagery that he uses brings the reader to him; to the rehabilitation center, the moment he reunites with his parents, and the first time he sees Lily, his love. His simple style makes his writing relatable, even to those of us who have never been addicted to crack or sniffed glue.

His tale begins on a plane where he awakes, unaware how or why he is where he is. His teeth are broken. The reader later learns that he has fallen from a fire escape and on his way to a drug treatment center. He has spent the last 10 years addicted to alcohol and the past 3 years using crack, altho...

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...'s the meaning of life, Leonard? He laughs, says that's an easy one, my son, it's whatever you want it to be.”

He is accused of lying about the death of his girlfriend Lily whom he claims to have formed a forbidden relationship with during rehab. She was described as part of his reason for living. In the end, she commits suicide. In the book it is stated that she does this by hanging, but Frey later states that she killed herself by slitting her wrists. There is no record of such events.

This essay will provide quotes representing the parts of life that make a story relatable. It has all of the elements of a good creative non-fiction story. Unfortunately, it fails to deliver its promise to readers. It is a great story, but it is not creative non-fiction. Unfortunately, because of its tainted history it will never be remembered for its greatness. Too bad.