I find all the hating on James Frey and his A Million Little Pieces tedious. Read the book. I did, quite a while back. It's really good. You can't write a book like that. As for the "truthfullness," and Random House offering refunds and Operah breaking down in tears over it all, I mean grow the fuck up, people. These folks have it right:

Doubleday suggested on Tuesday it was unconcerned about the book's accuracy. "Memoir is a personal history," the publisher said in a statement. "By definition, it is highly personal.

"He represented to us that his version of events was true to his recollections," Doubleday said.

Holla! Memoirs are sensationalized. People fudge the details when they tell their own stories. Drug addicts get stupid tatoos. There's nothing surprising about any of this, and none of it detracts from the literary value of the book. This however, is horseshit:

Central to Frey's book, published in 2003, is his assertion that he was charged with assaulting an Ohio police officer with his car, with inciting a riot, with possession of crack cocaine and felony drunk driving -- charges that he wrote resulted in a three-month prison term.

Actually, those things are not at all central to the book. In fact, I don't even remember run ins with the law as being mildly important. As I recall, they're rather mentioned in passing, boastfully even. Part of the point being that rich daddy can get you out of these sorts of scrapes, I believe.

Personally it doesn't matter to me whether or not the book (or any book, really) is true to life. The process of making any art always involves the heart of the creator; whether or not events described actually transpired is less important than whether or not they come alive in the mind of the reader. Unless you're writing history, which this book ain't. I can see how maybe if you were yourself a recovering addict it might matter to you, but no one is disputing Frey's battles with drugs and alcohol.

I fail to see what the fuss is about. Seems like a whole lotta player-hating.