Frey, James, A Million Little Pieces , Random House 15th of Apri, 2003
I chose to read "A Million Little Pieces" because I've seen my friends read it, and I've heard that it was a good book to read, and I learned a little background information about the book and it takes place in a drug/alcohol rehabiliation center.
The story starts off with the main character James, waking up on an airplane with a broken/missing teeth, and other injuries and not knowing what happened. He lands in Chicago and meets his parents, and end up in a rehab center and begins rehabilitation. For the first few weeks, he goes through what seems like hell at the rehab, he vomits almost every time he wakes up, he goes through a double root canal with no novacain because of his physical fragility. During the early days at the rehab he ate by himself, and he soon meets people that will eventually help him get out of rehab. The most important people are a girl named Lily, who he can't stop looking at everytime he sees her, Miles, a clairenet, and judge who is determined to sober up, and Leonard, who is speculated throughout the story as a mob-boss, but is never confirmed. He is quickly introduced to the rules of the rehab center of no talking to female patients, curfews, etc, and the "twelve steps" program, where he can be guaranteed of rehab, but he sees it as another crutch instead of a full recovery, and constantly rejects all the rules placed on him. He is also told early in the story of the 3 year sentence he faces in jail when he comes out of rehab, and he sees no hope. He also learns about the "Fury" that drives him to do drugs and alcohol. He rejects the twelve steps program with a book called Tao Te Ching, a book where it teaches on self-reliance, self-discpline, etc. He also disregards many of the rehab center's rules, especially where he goes to secretly meets Lily, to spend time with her. Throughout the book, he continually gets better and better, and his faced with many temptations to return to his old habits. He and Lily continue to grow to each other, and Lily, faced with an issue of her sick grandmother, and miscommunication with James, she runs from the center and in to a shack where she planned on comitting suicide with drugs, James fought the temptation to do the drugs, and instead saved Lily and brought her back to the center. He also had deep bonding moments with Miles, where he learns about Miles, and what he's going through and uses that as a base to where James is with his situation. Leonard, probably the most important person to James, is also the most important person to James's recovery. Leonard, provided joy and hope to the rehab unit James was in through catered dinners, talking about casual things such as football games, and boxing matches. Leonard's giving of what it feels like to have a normal life ultimately gives James's hope and happiness, and further reinforces the things life is worth living for. Toward the end after he conquers himself and his emotions, his 3 year sentence out of rehab is reduced the 3 months with unexplained reasons, and he leaves the rehab and goes for one final test. He goes to a bar with his brother and close friends of his brother to a bar and orders 40 dollars worth of whiskey. He wavers slightley from the smell and sight, but he ultimately tells the bartender to pour it down the drain.
When James first enters rehab, he is incredibly stubborn and emotionally unstable. He tries to go through the rehab by himself with no help whatsoever. about toward the middle of the book James learns a lot about himself. He learns about how his "Fury", the inner impulse to get angry and to use drugs, works. He learns about what life is worth living for. most of all, he learns a lot about a need for companionship, and he gets that through Lily, Miles, and Leonard. James saves Lily, and James bonds with Miles and Leonard and learns about other people's problems and
learns compassion.
Overall, I enjoyed this novel as the plot was very well written and the ending was not the normal "happy ending" and I liked the book for its unique writing style, and with that writing style it gave it a realistic setting and i think because of that it came to my attention that the book can be a true depiction of what can actually happen to drug abusers and alcoholics. As for a self connection to the book, i think that this book taught me that you can resist temptations of your own free will, and that it's important to know that you can change yourself no matter what other people tell you.
James Frey surprisingly wrote this story with actual events that happened in real life, he was put in rehab for drug abuse and James the character and his background is actually incredibly close to James the author, and what he went through. His childhood was exactly the same as James in the story, of a financially comfortable childhood, etc. The fact that this book was a partly true story with fictional twists in the plot, made this book more and more realistic as i read on, and i think that is what impressed me the most, though this is the first time i've read a book in the memoir genre, i would probably not read another one like it, just because James Frey had such an interesting childhood to base his story from.
