He really doesn't. Just read his writing.

Arrogant prick. Please James, either stop writing or go hide somewhere and leave the public alone.

I'm giving points, grudgingly, for the "up for debate" line.

oooooh, soooooo bad-aaaass! This is undoubtedly a line he uses at bars, too.

Well, James, I don't really give a shit either. Fiction or non-fiction, your writing is just BAD.

Who gives a shit, it's still entertaining pulp for the masses. Let the bitch write his books in peace.

Honestly, I kinda respect him more after reading this.

Yeah, I'm not sure why he has to be burned at the stake here. When you pick up an autobiography, do you really feel like you're entitled anything beyond those words and pages? Why should he give a shit? Why should we?

The article in Vanity Fair on him was interesting. I guess I just never really got peeved over it. I expect all autobiography to have an element of revisionist history. He lied bigtime of course.

Stephen Glass, that pissed me off.

Whatevskys, he's cute!

(You can kill me now)

I just choose not to read his stuff although I note that his head shot always looks like a mug shot.

The picket sign that Frey carried...was that memoir or fiction written on it?

To me, the most amazing thing was that he was picketing and didn't even seem to mind the gunshot wound to his gut. He's a such a bad ass.

I'm not getting why this was bad?
Or is it?
Or am I just lost again?
It's that I am work. I blame work. It's always work.

And I still don't get it. And I liked the much maligned book- total fiction or not.
And I'm babbling now... I blame work.

September 2009: James Frey's new memoir, A Thousand Little Pickets, tells the true story behind the writer's strike and how one determined, bad-ass scribe led them to victory!

@dagblad: Obviously, there's something to be said for reading something you think is true that is not. Appropiate outrage keeps people in-line so that we can have non-fiction and fiction. But really, this thing has gone far enough. Let this guy move on. He wrote an extremely exegerated memoir that was, at the very least entertaining and popular. He fucked up. He's trying to move on. I'm all for it. I'll read his new book.

Amusing exhange at Frey's chat at washingtonpost.com yesterday:

New York, NY: Why would anyone read anything this fraud has to write?
JF: I hope we meet someday so I can shake your hand and give you a big hug.

(Like the one Oprah gave him - the first time?)

>> He wrote an extremely exegerated (sic) memoir that was, at the very least entertaining and popular. <<

That novel sucked dog dicks, truthful or not. Arbitrarily capitalizing words here and there doesn't make you Edgy. I respect him for shysting the semi-literate out of cash. For that he deserves credit. But a good writer? He will never be that.

@gawkimo: I suggest it's not a good strategy to call anyone -- including myself -- who liked Frey's first book "semi-literate."

Although it's true I read a library copy.

@gawkimo: Congrats. You just called a literature teacher "semi-literate".
That would be me.
And that whole three-years-in-law-school-thing begs to differ as well.
But thanks for trying.