Frey, James A Million Little Pieces ISBN 13: 9781400031085

A Million Little Pieces - Softcover

9781400031085: A Million Little Pieces
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
A searing memoir of drug and alcohol abuse and the rehabilitation experience offers a provocative look at addiction and recovery through the eyes of a man who had taken his addictions to deadly extremes, describing the torments of withdrawal and detoxification, the desperate urge to use chemicals, and the battle to confront the consequences of his life and redefine his future. Reader's Guide available. Reprint. 100,000 first printing.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
The electrifying opening of James Frey's debut memoir, A Million Little Pieces, smash-cuts to the then 23-year-old author on a Chicago-bound plane "covered with a colourful mixture of spit, snot, urine, vomit and blood." Wanted by authorities in three states, without ID or any money, his face mangled and missing four front teeth, Frey is on a steep descent from a dark marathon of drug abuse. His stunned family checks him into a famed Minnesota drug treatment centre where a doctor promises "he will be dead within a few days" if he starts to use again, and where Frey spends two agonising months of detox confronting "The Fury" head:
I want a drink. I want fifty drinks. I want a bottle of the purest, strongest, most destructive, most poisonous alcohol on Earth. I want 50 bottles of it. I want crack, dirty and yellow and filled with formaldehyde. I want a pile of powder meth, 500 hits of acid, a garbage bag filled with mushrooms, a tube of glue bigger than a truck, a pool of gas large enough to drown in. I want something anything whatever however as much as I can.
One of the more harrowing sections is when Frey submits to major dental surgery without the benefit of anesthesia or painkillers (he fights the mind-blowing waves of "bayonet" pain by digging his fingers into two old tennis balls until his nails crack). His fellow patients include a damaged crack addict with whom Frey wades into an ill-fated relationship, a federal judge, a mobster, and a former championship boxer (who throws a hilarious surf-and-turf bacchanal, complete with pay-per-view boxing, upon his release). In the book's epilogue, when Frey ticks off a terse update on everyone, you can almost hear the Jim Carroll Band's brutal survivor's lament "People Who Died" kicking in on the soundtrack of the inevitable film adaptation.

The rage-fuelled memoir is kept in check by Frey's cool, minimalist style. Like his steady mantra, "I am an Alcoholic and I am a drug Addict and I am a Criminal," Frey's use of repetition takes on a crisp, lyrical quality which lends itself to the surreal experience. The book could have benefited from being a bit leaner. Nearly 400 pages is a long time to spend under Frey's influence, and the stylistic acrobatics (no quotation marks, random capitalization, left-aligned text, wild paragraph breaks) may seem too self-conscious for some readers, but beyond the literary fireworks lurks a fierce debut. --Brad Thomas Parsons, Amazon.com

Review:
James Frey's utterly mesmerising account ... [is] easily the most remarkable non-fiction book about drugs and drug taking since Hunter S Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ... As a memoir, it is almost mythic. You can imagine it made epic by Martin Scorsese, the auteur of wayward American maleness in all its extremity ... Utterly compulsive (Observer)

Clear sighted and intellectually honest (Literary Review)

Excellent ... Frey's storytelling feels compulsive, involuntary ... poignant and tragic. The forthcoming film will almost certainly be a cult hit ... The good thing about Frey is that he writes as if he needs to; I hope his new compulsion thrives (William Leith, Spectator)

Startling and ultimately breath taking (Kirkus Reviews)

Frey really can write. Brilliantly. And if you don't think so, f*** you (London Evening Standard)

A heartbreaking memoir ... inspirational and essential (Bret Easton Ellis)

This book is definitely going to be huge ... There is no question that he's a good writer. As soon as you start reading the book, Frey's voice rings out. It's clear and sharp and turbocharged ... We love rehab memoirs. This is a good one. It might even be a great one (Independent)

An extraordinary and deeply moving book that will make you think about family, friendship, love, religion, death and perhaps most of all, the human spirit (Irish Sunday Independent)

Horribly honest and funny ... Read this immediately (Gus Van Sant)

James Frey spent ten years addicted to alcohol and crack before going into rehab at the age of 23. This unrelenting memoir of his recovery spares no detail. Luckily, he is a good writer - indulgent and uncompromising (Metro)

Frey is selfish, egocentric, violent and pompous . . . What redeems this insufferably bad mannered book is that, at the end of the day, Frey can write. Brilliantly (Scotsman)

Harrowing and unflinching ... This is not a book about drugs but about their aftermath ... Though definitely not for the faint hearted, Frey is often darkly and self deprecatingly funny. This is, in essence, a story of redemption and an incredibly moving one. This is a great book (Waterstone's Books Quarterly)

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherAnchor Books
  • Publication date2004
  • ISBN 10 1400031087
  • ISBN 13 9781400031085
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages430
  • Rating

Shipping: £ 21.40
From U.S.A. to United Kingdom

Destination, rates & speeds

Add to Basket

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780307276902: A Million Little Pieces (Oprah's Book Club)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780307276902
Publisher: Anchor Books, 2005
Softcover

  • 9780719561023: A Million Little Pieces: A shocking exploration of addiction

    John M..., 2004
    Softcover

  • 9780385507752: A Million Little Pieces

    Doubleday, 2003
    Hardcover

  • 9781529316186: A Million Little Pieces: A shocking exploration of addiction

    John M..., 2019
    Softcover

  • 9781444730029: A Million Little Pieces (flipback edition)

    John M..., 2011
    Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Frey, James
Published by Anchor (2004)
ISBN 10: 1400031087 ISBN 13: 9781400031085
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Shakespeare Book House
(Rockford, IL, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. The item is Brand New!. Seller Inventory # 570Q1Y001U8Z_ns

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 6.13
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 21.40
From U.S.A. to United Kingdom
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Frey, James
Published by Anchor (2004)
ISBN 10: 1400031087 ISBN 13: 9781400031085
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
GoldenWavesOfBooks
(Fayetteville, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_1400031087

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 19.13
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 22.19
From U.S.A. to United Kingdom
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Frey, James
Published by Anchor (2004)
ISBN 10: 1400031087 ISBN 13: 9781400031085
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
GoldBooks
(Austin, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed. Seller Inventory # think1400031087

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 23.20
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 24.57
From U.S.A. to United Kingdom
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Frey, James
Published by Anchor (2004)
ISBN 10: 1400031087 ISBN 13: 9781400031085
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Front Cover Books
(Denver, CO, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: new. Seller Inventory # FrontCover1400031087

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 23.86
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 24.17
From U.S.A. to United Kingdom
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Frey, James
Published by Anchor (2004)
ISBN 10: 1400031087 ISBN 13: 9781400031085
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
BennettBooksLtd
(LOS ANGELES, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 0.95. Seller Inventory # Q-1400031087

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 47.29
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 34.87
From U.S.A. to United Kingdom
Destination, rates & speeds