Smashed into a Million Little Pieces: James Frey

This radical declaration was first made by the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard in 1846. Existentialists have repeated this mantra ever since, but it was given an unusual spin recently by James Frey in his interview with Big Think. And yet, the important thing is that Oprah still isn't buying it.

Or is she? Discrepancies still abound as to whether Frey originally intended to publish his book as fiction or as nonfiction. Consider his recent interview with Oprah Winfrey, and his interview with Big Think. Did Frey's publisher decide the book was more marketable if it was presented as a true story, as opposed to a truth-enhanced story? Turns out the answer to that question matters a lot.

Brief Back Story:

Frey's 2003 memoir A Million Little Pieces was a dark and arresting tale of a young man's struggle with drug addiction that became an Oprah-endorsed tear-jerker when it was added to her book club list, catapulting the "memoir" to the top of the The New York Times nonfiction paperback bestseller list. One problem: the whistleblowing website The Smoking Gun catalogued the book's many factual inaccuracies in a takedown known as "A Million Little Lies." For instance, Frey never spent three months in jail as described in the harrowing passages of his book. Instead, it was several harrowing hours in police custody.

This revelation and others resulted in Oprah initially defending Frey, then recanting, feeling duped, and then famously shaming the author on national TV. Recently, the pair got together for a segment in "Oprah's Most Memorable Guests: The Greatest Lessons on the Oprah Show." Far surpassing events like skinheads storming off the set, the Frey episode has been referred to in Oprah's promos as the greatest controversy in the show's history.

What's the significance?

Frey, who shot to fame after Oprah's endorsement as, in Oprah's words, "the hottest writer in America," found himself falling from literary grace just as suddenly. Since then, he has cultivated the reputation he earned from the controversy (although he appeared very contrite in his recent Oprah interview), telling Big Think that the truth has very much set him free. Among other doozies ("I don't care much about truth"), Frey says he has now found himself as a writer after being tossed out of a club he never wanted to belong to.