Judith Ann Hillard's Blog

Truthfully, a friend lent me the book, A Million Little Pieces, by James Frey, and I was so disgusted by his lack of grammatical rules, his lack of originality in that his profanity is what filled his book aside from his lies that jumped out and slapped me (come on? who in the USA would pull four front teeth without aid of novacaine or lidocaine for numbing purposes? those are NOT controlled substances.. he was not going to snort them up his nose, but rather, the nurse or aid or dentist himself was going to shoot them into the nerves in his mouth so the guy did not bite off the dentist's fingers when he went to pull the teeth, IF indeed he pulled any teeth at all... generally they do not, but cap what they can... IF indeed he had broken any in a fight or a fall from a fire escape as he claimed). I was quite disgusted also by his use of an e.e. cummings style using no capital letters. He is just not that sophisticated a writer to be able to throw out all the rules of convention. I asked my friend, "When does one begin to care about this guy?" and she replied, "Honestly Jude, never." Uggh. And not being one to stop reading in the middle of a book, I persevered and got through it, thinking all the while, "I could do better than this by just telling the unvarnished truth. It is bad enough without slapping a bunch of varnish on it." And I've always been a journal keeper, even in the 10-month foray I took into the underworld of cocaine addiction at the end of my PhD program.. so I had material to use from back in the day. I went into my den at 4 AM on a Thursday and emerged about 2 weeks later, thinner and tired, but finished. It needed some touch-up, which I did after a meal and a long nap. But it is the truth, every word. Now I'm on a quest to get Oprah to read it. A writer friend lives next door to her in Santa Barbara, and every few months we have her toss a copy over Oprah's fence with a note. So far, not a word in response. James Frey burned her and she has a long memory. He sullied the good name of former addicts everywhere. So still, I do not like the frat boy who was just looking to make a name for himself. That, he accomplished, liar that he is. I see he has a second book out. I must be a small person to wish he would fall into a mud puddle (but not from a fire escape) and sully himself, but wish it, I do.