Hats off to Oprah

I don’t care what Dubner, or The Smoking Gun website say (see the blog post below), I am a huge fan of James Frey’s book anyway.

I saw the book “A Million Little Pieces” by James Frey at a bookstore the other day. I had never heard of it, except that it is the Oprah Book Club pick. I figured I would hate it (Anna Karenina is not my thing, for instance), but quickly glanced at the inside flap to see what it was about. The inside cover reads as follows:

Imagine waking up on a plane. You have no idea where you have been or where you are going, you have no memory of the preceding two weeks.

Imagine that your front four teeth have been knocked out, your nose is broken, and there is a gash on your cheek. Imagine that you have no wallet, no money, no job.

Imagine the police in three states are looking for you.

Imagine that you have been an alcoholic for ten years and a crack addict for three. What would you do? What would you do?

That was enticing enough to get me to buy the book. It has radically exceeded my expectations. It provides an amazing window into the ravages of addiction. I half felt like I was a recovering addict reading it. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

And if you have a fifteen year old who you think might be pondering drug use, definitely give him/her a copy. It will do far more to deter him/her than any DARE program or parental lecture.

It reads like fiction anyway. So unlike Freakonomics, I’m not sure it matters whether it is true or not. Others may disagree.