DLC Blog

A Million Little Pieces: A Million Little Lies?

We are all familiar with stereotypes, categories, and groupings. As normal thinking humans categorization is part of our mental grammar. It is imbedded within us, a subconscious and conscious act that we commit on a daily basis. We group people into stereotypes, music into genres, status with clothing labels and brands of cars, and a million other things. In literature, the categorization of a book can often 'make or break it.' If an author submits a book to a publishing house whose core is a love story, but is categorized as a science fiction genre if the story is between aliens, the author might lose a core group predominantly female audience. The same scenerio can also work the other way. In this aspect, categorization is pertinent and crucial to an authors book.

Too bad author James Frey wasn't aware of this when his now No. 1 bestselling book, A Milion Little Pieces, was chosen as one of Oprah Winfrey's infamous book club choices this past October. Within days the book shot to No. 1, making it an international best seller thanks to everyone favorite talk show host. Frey called the book a memoir of his experience and battle with drug addiction and rehabilitation almost 13 years prior. Just recently Frey came under fire when thesmokinggun.com released a 12 page expose on Frey, highlighting information that contradicted the extent of his harrowing experiences. Frey shot back on Larry King Live, explaining that while some parts may be embellished, in any memoir or biography there is bound to be some improvements in the story. But he stuck to his guns saying the heart and core and vast majority of his accounts were true. This is where the idea of genre and categorization comes into play. Since Frey's publisher Doubleday marketed the book as a biography and memoir, inevitably the story would have to detail what all biographies do, the honest 100% truth. Never has the concept of literature genres been such a heated debate, and maybe next time publishers and authors alike will be a little more careful with their labelings.

Posted by Mia at January 12, 2006 08:53 PM in Humanities.