Ben's Monthly Book Review

Okay people, here's one for ya . . .

How long has it been since you last heard someone blabbing on about the controversy surrounding James Frey's pseudo-memoir "A Million Little Pieces"? In case you went ahead and booked that month-long trip to the moon and need a refresher on current events . . . that's the book-club pick that recently sent dear ole' Oprah herself into an apologizatory (is this a word) frenzy the likes of which I myself haven't witnessed since junior high. (It was a dodgeball incident and I would rather not get into it now.)

How long did you say? 3 minutes? 90 seconds? You're listening to someone talk about it while you're reading this?

Well, batten down any loose hatches and get as prepared as you possibly can, because I'm gonna go there. I really, really am.

Let me start by saying . . . that I started . . . the book that is. I asked for and received "A Million Little Pieces" for Christmas. Hey, what can I say, I was curious. I had heard some rumblings about how good it was and I actually liked the cover. I'm one of those people who IS influenced by a book's cover. IMHO this is part of the experience when you pony up a chunk of your money into purchasing and devote a chunk of your life to reading a book, and "A Million Little Pieces" has arguably one of the best covers in recent publishing history.

So, I was sitting on the book for a couple of weeks when the news broke that it ain't entirely true. Within minutes I couldn't help but hear all about X scene and Y scene and how it didn't really happen the way he wrote it and on and on and on. This might sound strange, but it actually made me want to read it even more. It was like everyone was shucking and jiving around the water cooler and I was standing over by the copy machine with an invisible "L" painted on my forehead.

That's when I opened the book. Dude, what font size are ya using there? .09? It's more like a million little words. I'm gonna need a stronger eyeglass prescription after tackling this one.

Okay, enough witty banter.

Here comes the book review part of this book review -

I'm 75 pages in and it's pretty good.

That's it. That's the review.

Actually, I was hoping to come back to a comments section full of vibrant commentary on a few of the more important issues raised by this post . . .

1. If you have read James Frey's book what did you think? How does the revelation that people sometimes embellish their memoirs affect your overall experience?

2. When you're standing around like a doofus at Barnes & Noble trying to pick something out, does an impressive book cover sway your mind in any way? What are some favorite book covers out there?

3. Didn't Oprah's hair look nice?


Ben O.