A Million Little Pieces

I loved reading this book before it became tainted by fact checkers. That being said, it remains a fascinating, raw, and gripping read. His use of language as falls deeper and deeper into becoming hooked is similar to being a storm chaser. He can’t help himself chasing the highs, knowing full well the low may be the last one. “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 fifty bottles of it. I want crack, dirty and yellow and filled with formaldehyde. I… show more.

I gobbled up this book the way I came to gobble pills — insatiably. Frey’s staccato and sparse writing style worked like a magnet. It pulled me into his mind’s inferno after his crack-fueled, decade-long alcohol dependence is ended. He broke grammatical rules that intensified his rehab experience, feral cravings, disdain for AA, and dark selfishness that is the true marking of an alcoholic. This inspired me to take chances writing. To make up words, play with punctuation, go meta. Oh, and I also learned not to lie. Notwithstanding questionable truths, AMLP is Frey’s mind as a proverbial train wreck.… show more.

This book became infamous when Oprah outed Frey on her show – what he had published as a memoir was actually a work of fiction. That said, there’s no denying that this book is unputdownable; a wild ride of addiction from the addict’s point of view. The highs, literal and figurative are written in sharp contrast with the lows. Frey has a way of making the reader empathize with an inherently unlikable character, which is very hard to do as a writer.

Over the years I have read this book three times and I plan to read it again and, perhaps again and again. I’ve never experienced anything like it. The writing is punch-perfect, every unpunctuated line offering a gut-grab. I found myself talking to Frey, sometimes shouting, “Why don’t you get it, you stubborn, pigheaded, self-centered jerk?” My questions come from a place of fear for the places where his pig-headedness will take him. I want him to live a good, long, clean and sober life because, strange as it might seem, in recovery those stubborn, pigheaded, self-centered, addicted jerks turn… show more.