The New James Frey: A Review

Oprah's whipping boy is back with a novel that isn't a memoir, but is entertaining despite itself

Circe Hamilton / Retna / Camera Press

James Frey, author of Bright Shiny Morning .

I'm not going to get between you and James Frey. Frey, as everybody knows, is the author of two books that were published as memoirs--A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard--but turned out to be not especially factually accurate. I'm not that upset about it, mostly because I didn't think the books were that great in the first place. They felt crude and overwrought and underthought to me, and maybe as if Frey were just a little too proud of what a thorough mess he'd made of his life. Yes, he violated the unwritten contract between writer and reader. I...

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