James Frye just can't buy a break these days, but I guess that on his last appearrance on Oprah Winfrey's show I imagine he thought even the devil deserved some sympathy. He seemed not to get any. To be fair, I only saw a few snippets of his appearrance on the show from another venue, I didn't actually see the show-nor am I lilely to ever sit through as much as five minutes of this schmaltz-so I am going solely by what has been reported. To be sure, cable news shows tend to concentrate on the more sensational aspects, so it is possible the appearrance of the author of "A Million Little Pieces" may have been more generally sympathetic than is generally portrayed. I doubt it though. For one thing, the cable news networks would have jumped at the chance to point out yet more writhing excuses from the daytime diva who first brought the inspirational story of James Frye, in the apparrent form of a memoir of the life of a drug addict, to the attention of her viewers and followers of her "Oprah's Book Club" .
When the web-site, "The Smoking Gun" first reported inconsistencies in Frye's account, it set off a firestorm of contoversy that led eventually to Frye's appearrance on CNN's The Larry King Show, where he stood by his account, though he did offer the caveat that he might have been confused on some details as, after all, a good portion of the story took place when he was high, probably wasted, and so his memory might have been faulty.
Yeah, like so faulty, in fact, that a few hours in the slammer somehow turned into three months. Must have been some powerful fucking drugs, Jimmy boy. So powerful, in fact, that the contact high prompted Oprah to call in to Kings show that night to voice her support for the author she had promoted , just another in a long line of authors she has taken under her wing in her persona of latter day DeMedici.
Unfortunately for all concerned, The Smoking Gun kept it's barrels blazing, and sensing fresh blood, so did the media in general. Soon, Frye had no choice but to come clean. Come to find out, he had originally submitted the manuscript of the book as a novel-a novel. But lo and behold, somewhere along the way, either from a publicist, agent, or possibly even the books publisher, he got the idea that the book read better, not as a novel, but as a memoir, a "true life" story of a substance abuser, a drug addict, and how he got his life together.
Assumming this is the truth, this is where my sympathy for Frye comes into play. Being a writer myself, I would find myself hard pressed to turn down an offer for publication that was dependant on my fabricating a false history of myself. I would like to think I would say no. But what if I was in dire sraits, was desperate for the money. What if I legitimately saw this as very possibly my one, my only chance, to become a published author. I'm not so sure I would turn it down,however nasty a taste it would leave in my mouth. To be sure, I would have come clean the minute the book hit the best seller lists, andcertainly before I would agree to appear on Oprah's show to promote it.
Errr, well, maybe not. An appearrance on Oprah's show is an almost sure fire guarantee of a best seller, or at least of achieving respectably good sells. See what I mean? One lie necessitates another, and soon you are living a life of lies, the spider suddenly transformed into the fly.
If it were indeed the publisher of Frye's book that put him in this impossible position, I hope the company, a division of Doubleday, does the right thing and apologizes for it's role in this sorry affair. As for Frye, I wish him well. Evidently, all this publicity has not hurt his books sales, if anything it has enhanced them. James Frye may well go down in history as the worlds most succesful grifter.
And Oprah Winfrey would be well advised from this point on to research any books authors claims before she recommends them, or vouches for their legitimacy.
2 comments:
I agree with most of your points. I find it hard to pin the responsibility on Oprah, though--I think that the publisher, which made the choice to publish as "memoir," is first in the sights.
But then, after the choice was made to package it that way, the author went on Oprah (and probably engaged in other publicity activities) and went along. So he does bear some responsibility.
-- david
Oh yeah, he bears the brunt of it in fact, as it was ultimately his responsibility to do the right thing. My sympathy for him is that of one writer for another, as to the position his publisher put him in. Seems to have been the implication, "you do it my way, or you won't be doing it."
It also kind of pisses me off that everybody is piling on this guy, and Oprah to a lesser extent, but you hear very few people if any criticizing the publisher. But I guess that's a reflection of the corporatist oriented world we find ourselves in.
Cool picture, by the way.
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