<![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone - Gawker Comments]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone - Gawker Comments]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> I read "My Stroke of Insight" in one sitting - I couldn't put it down. I laughed. I cried. It was a fantastic book (I heard it's a NYTimes Bestseller and I can see why!), but I also think it will be the start of a new, transformative Movement! No one wants to have a stroke as Jill Bolte Taylor did, but her experience can teach us all how to live better lives. Her TED.com speech was one of the most incredibly moving, stimulating, wonderful videos I've ever seen. Her Oprah Soul Series interviews were fascinating. They should make a movie of her life so everyone sees it. This is the Real Deal and gives me hope for humanity.

Clectus

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> credit where credit is due department:

it was Bill Bastone at The Smoking Gun who eviscerated the hack douchebag frey, and not the duped oprah who merely tried to save face on her income-generating book club.

NorthBeach

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> From the website: "I'm reading it now and love it. It's an easy read with short chapters. Good for James Frey!!!" Submitted by: Laey Di

When the best you can say about a book is that it is easy to read and has short chapters, you've got problems.

Smirk

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> I actually liked both Frey books -- seriously, couldn't put them down, though still not sure I'd have bothered to shelve next to my copy of Permanent Midnight if they'd been sold as novels -- but the real story here is that David Ulin has been the reliable conscience of the major-daily book-reviewing world for decades now. If he calls it crap, I'm inclined to believe him.

skahammer

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> @jackvinyl: Ok you've shamed me. I'll get on it tonight.

Zorica

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> I bet everything in this novel is true. Just wait till the real "Old Man Joe" comes suing for royalties. Oprah's really gonna be pissed this time.

Tweedledamn

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> "Frey seems to know little about Los Angeles and to have no interest in it as a real place where people wrestle with actual life."

That's the main problem most Angelenos have about attempts to "explain" their city, and the last thing reviewers outside Los Angeles seem to care about. But whether you're interested in the actual inhabitants of L.A. or not, that's one of the major differences between good and bad literature.

Personally, I'd rather just go back to playing "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas."

TedSez

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> outside!!!!!

if_i_only_had_a_heart

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> @if_i_only_had_a_heart: There were no women hanging out around my Kindle so I had to go out.

belltolls

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> @belltolls: bookstore????? just kidding

if_i_only_had_a_heart

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> @Bell County: Me too Bell! I was in a bookstore yesterday and I saw it but there was like a force field around it and I couldn't even open it to read even one para to make fun of.

belltolls

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> @Zorica: Isn't it about time to avatar-up?

This is what I always imagine when I read your comments...hmmm?
[images.google.com]

jackvinyl

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> Time Magazine gave his piece a generally favorable review, too. So looks like for now, LA Times is the only dissenter..

brightorange89

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> @SarahHeartburn: yes to all. i don't know a lot about price's life but i believe the stuff in his novels comes from ***reporting***

whoa

if_i_only_had_a_heart

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> @if_i_only_had_a_heart: The world needs more of Richard Price.

Hmmm. I remember when he got publicly flogged by Oprah, there was almost a backlash of sympathy for him. Maybe the positive reviews are another wave of "Jeez, he's not THAT bad".

SarahHeartburn

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> We should probably be grateful he didn't name the character Old Black Joe.

sailor

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> he's no richard price

if_i_only_had_a_heart

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> Good Morning Ian!
Washington Post also gave it a great review, which suggests to me :

That many, many reviewers (and journos) are familiar with, and sympathetic to, plagiarism.
That publishers will buy anything if they think there is an audience -- and there always is for crap. (Mitch Albom; that moron who wrote The Notebook; Rod McKuen's poetry.)
And the business of buying and selling books has reached theater-of-the-absurd proportions.

I'll get back to weeding my graden now, and preparing for the onset of early senility.

PandoraSpocks

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> "James Frey-the whining, lying-ass, horrible writer who was probably never seriously addicted to anything in his whole sad, pampered, no-talent life"

He never slipped into any kind of addiction, nefarious or even just slightly disruptive? What an asshole!

I know, it's not the "not having street cred" that is the complaint here, it's the lying about, and attempt to capitalize on, street cred he so verily verily didn't have, essentially mocking those who actually did live through shit like that. It just sounded a little funny to me. Maybe I'm touchy because I've never had any crippling addictions, I actually fought really hard to avoid them, and I'm starting to think, in terms of the "interesting life experiences" bank that might not have been the solid investment I once thought.

Zorica

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> Gawker should make a habit of always getting the titles of his books wrong. Every media outlet should do that.

We're speaking with James Frey, author of "Broken Up Into Lots of Pieces..."

Shariahpants

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> a chapter on visual artists that lists "the highest price ever paid for a piece of their work in a public auction."

Oh man. He's still on that kick? Dick: [gawker.com]

Dickdogfood

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> @jackiecorley: i can't type, apparently

the problem with 'a million little pieces' wasn't that it wasn't fact. the problem is that it wasn't a book. that thing didn't even have sentences, just a dribbling trail of diarrhea.

jackiecorley

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> Cliff Notes Version of the Review: Narrative and authenticity are not among Jimmy Frey's talents. But liquid crap and annoying newspaper hacks with his undeserved success are!

MrInBetween

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> I'm so proud to say I've never read a word of James Frey's except as quoted in Gawker.

Bell County

]]> <![CDATA[James Frey Can't Fool Everyone]]> the with 'a million little pieces' wasn't that it wasn't fact. the is that it wasn't a book. that thing didn't even have sentences, just a dribbling trail of diarrhea.

jackiecorley

]]>