KruegerBooks.com A Million Little Pieces James Frey A Million Little Pieces James Frey A Million Little Pieces James Frey A Million Little Pieces James Frey A Million Little Pieces James Frey A Million Little Pieces James Frey A Million Little Pieces James Frey
a note to the reader
A Million Little Pieces is about
my memories of my time in a drug and
alcohol treatment center. As has been accurately revealed by two journalists
at an Internet Web site, and subsequently acknowledged by me, during
the process of writing the book, I embellished many details about my
past experiences, and altered others in order to serve what I felt was the
greater purpose of the book. I sincerely apologize to those readers who
have been disappointed by my actions.
I first sat down to write the book
in the spring of 1997. I wrote what is
now the first forty pages of it. I stopped because I didn’t feel ready
to continue
to do it, didn’t think I was ready to express some of the trauma I
had experienced. I started again in the fall of 2000. I had been working in
the film industry and was deeply unsatisfied with what I was doing. I had
wanted to write books and was writing films. I saved enough money to
give myself eighteen months to write the book.
I didn’t initially think of
what I was writing as nonfiction or fiction,
memoir or autobiography. I wanted to use my experiences to tell my story
about addiction and alcoholism, about recovery, about family and friends
and faith and love, about redemption and hope. I wanted to write, in the
best-case scenario, a book that would change lives, would help people
who were struggling, would inspire them in some way. I wanted to write
a book that would detail the fight addicts and alcoholics experience in
their minds and in their bodies, and detail why that fight is difficult to
win. I wanted to write a book that would help the friends and family
members of addicts and alcoholics understand that fight.
As I wrote, I worked primarily from
memory. I also used supporting documents,
such as medical records, therapists’ notes, and personal journals, when
I had them, and when they were relevant. I wanted the stories in
the book to ebb and flow, to have dramatic arcs, to have the tension that
all great stories require. I altered events and details all the way through
the book. Some of those include my role in a train accident that killed a
girl from my school. While I was not, in real-life, directly involved in the
accident, I was profoundly affected by it. Others involved jail time I
served, which in the book is three months, but which in reality was only
several hours, and certain criminal events, including an arrest in Ohio,
which was embellished. There has been much discussion, and dispute,
about a scene in the book involving a root-canal procedure that takes
place without anesthesia. I wrote that passage from memory, and have
medical records that seem to support it. My account has been questioned
by the treatment facility, and they believe my memory may be flawed.
In addition, names and identifying characteristics of all the treatment patients
in the book and all of the facility’s employees, characteristics including
occupations, ages, places of residence, and places and means of death,
were changed to protect the anonymity of those involved in this period in
my life. This was done in the spirit of respecting every individual’s
anonymity, which is something we were urged to do while in treatment,
and to continue to do after we left.
I made other alterations in my portrayal
of myself, most of which portrayed
me in ways that made me tougher and more daring and more aggressive
than in reality I was, or I am. People cope with adversity in many different
ways, ways that are deeply personal. I think one way people cope is by developing
a skewed perception of themselves that allows them to overcome
and do things they thought they couldn’t do before. My mistake, and it
is
one I deeply regret, is writing about the person I created in my mind to
help me cope, and not the person who went through the experience.
There is much debate now about the
respective natures of works of memoir,
nonfiction, and fiction. That debate will likely continue for some
time. I believe, and I understand others strongly disagree, that memoir allows
the writer to work from memory instead of from a strict journalistic
or historical standard. It is about impression and feeling, about individual
recollection. This memoir is a combination of facts about my life and certain
embellishments. It is a subjective truth, altered by the mind of a recovering
drug addict and alcoholic. Ultimately, it’s a story, and one that I
could not have written without having lived the life I’ve lived.
I never expected the book to become
as successful as it has, to sell anywhere
close to the number of copies it has sold. The experience has been
shocking for me, incredibly humbling, and at times terrifying. Throughout
this process, I have met thousands of readers, and heard from many thousands
more, who were deeply affected by the book, and whose lives were
changed by it. I am deeply sorry to any readers who I have disapppointed
and I hope these revelations will not alter their faith in the book’s
central
message—that drug addiction and alcoholism can be overcome, and there
is always a path to redemption if you fight to find one. Thirteen years after
I left treatment, I’m still on the path, and I hope, ultimately, I’ll
get there.
James Frey
New York
January 2006
A Million Little Pieces James Frey A Million Little Pieces James Frey A Million Little Pieces James Frey A Million Little Pieces James Frey A Million Little Pieces James Frey A Million Little Pieces James Frey A Million Little Pieces James Frey