James Frey Update: A Million Little Lawsuits
“It’s payback time for disgraced memoirist James Frey and his publisher, Random House Inc. Under a tentative legal settlement, readers who said they were defrauded by Frey’s best-seller, “A Million Little Pieces,” can claim refunds, an agreement called unprecedented – and understandable – by a leading publishing attorney. “I can confirm that we have an agreement in principle,” David Drake, a spokesman for the Random House imprint Doubleday, said Thursday. “However, it requires court approval and may take several weeks and even months.” Allan Adler, vice president for legal and government affairs for the Association of American Publishers, noted that memoirs often cause allegations of defamation or invasion of privacy, but said he knew of no other case involving consumer fraud. He doubted whether the plaintiffs would have prevailed, but called the settlement sensible. “I think when the lawsuits were first announced, most lawyers were somewhat skeptical whether there was a legal foundation,” Adler said. “But it’s not surprising that the folks involved in the publication of the book would seek to address consumer concerns and ultimately put an end to the issue.” Readers who bought “A Million Little Pieces” on or before January 26, the day Frey and his publisher acknowledged that he had made up parts of the book, would be eligible for a refund of the full suggested retail price, regardless of discounts or special sales.”
I was shocked by this news. I don’t know if it constitutes “justice in action” or “our legal system gone wrong”. I’ve been down James Frey Ave. before and in a way I’m glad that (seemingly) this will be the last article I’ll ever need to write on the topic. Like I’ve stated many times, James Frey is a talented author, but he’s also a dumbass. Maybe Oprah would have passed on his book (A Million Little Pieces) if he had included a “parts of this book have been fictionalized” warning, but that was a risk that he, and the publisher, should have taken. Look at where they stand now; everyone involved is totally screwed.
I’m not trying to defend James Frey, far from it actually. Anybody who makes up a bunch of stories and throws them in a “memoir” is pretty much a low-life idiot whose fiction isn’t good enough to sell itself in the first place*. Frey saw an angle, the ridiculous exaggeration of his struggle with addiction, and ran with it like Walter Payton in the open field. So while Frey is an asshole for doing what he did, it’s kind of hard to fault him. If someone told you that you could become very wealthy by telling a succession of lies, what would you do?
And before we put this to bed, we can’t let Oprah, her stupid book club and the American consumer off the hook, myself included. On a whole, we have become increasingly obsessed with the biography/memoir genre. Think back to a few years ago. Normal, non-famous people didn’t write books about their lives. That shit just didn’t fly and I for one blame reality TV culture for this.
It’s kind of hard to make the claim that reality TV has had a dramatic effect on our popular literature since most of the people who watch this crap don’t read anything anyway (except for maybe People magazine), but take a look at the facts. Memoirs are selling like hot cakes. (On a side note, have you ever had a “hot cake”? I haven’t. What are they? Where can you buy them? That’s a phrase that really needs an update.) Personally, I love memoirs, I really do. I read them all the time, fully aware that they are probably making me stupider by the page. I guess coming from the guy whose favorite show is Flavor of Love 2 this isn’t saying much. It’s probably a totally predictable opinion actually. Oh well, whatever.
So let’s lay James Frey down to bed, once and for all. Despite this lawsuit, he’s probably made enough money off of A Million Little Pieces (and it’s sequel My Friend Leonard) to live comfortably. I doubt we’ll here from them again, but this is coming from the guy who thought The White Stripes were going to be one hit wonders. What the hell do I know?
*In Frey’s case, this turned out to be the case. He had been struggling for years as a television writer before he hit it big with his “memoir”.
