A Million Little Pieces by James Frey.
Published: London : John Murray, 2003.
A Million
Little Pieces is a bleak and
compelling autobiographical novel which recounts 23-year-old Frey’s attempts to
kick a severe drug and alcohol addiction in Hazelden, a rehabilitation clinic in Chicago.
His account of the agonizing six weeks of detox is harrowing in its descriptive
flashbacks to the rage-fuelled binges that led to rehab. Frey’s writing style, described as “literary
fireworks” is punctuated by short sentences and
wild paragraph breaks, all of which create a surreal experience.
Frey’s book was later exposed as fraudulent after investigators discovered that certain elements were greatly exaggerated.
Sources
Cover image: Goodreads
Citation: UTS Library catalogue
Annotation: Novelist, Goodreads and Amazon
