Or as Frey himself might put it, A Million Little Pieces is a compendium of “bullshit fantasies” about a life few of its readers have experienced, one redolent with crack binges, alcohol-fueled rages, violent outbursts, self-mutilation, multiple arrests, and several deaths. He looks at himself in the glass and asks the bartender to pour it away because he doesn’t like how he looks when drinking alcohol.But as just about everyone in America knows by now, courtesy of a careful investigation of his supposed grim exploits conducted by the Smoking Gun, Frey’s book turns out to be just that, fiction. When they arrive at the bar, James takes forty dollars from his brother and orders a pint of whiskey. James is upset, but he convinces Bob by saying that he really wants it. James asks his brother Bob to take him to a bar. A few days before he goes, he tells a priest that one year earlier, he beat up a French priest who had sexually propositioned him. Later on, when Leonard is due to check out of the clinic, he pays for Lilly’s second round of treatment and tells him that he sees him as a son. James suspects that Leonard had something to do with it since there was no logical explanation for why he got such a lenient sentence. However, he is sentenced to only three years in jail instead of fifteen for good behavior. He faces criminal charges as a result of his involvement in the robbery that killed Lilly’s parents. In the end, James finally accepts his past and Leonard’s help. However, she chooses not to take it because she wants a new course of treatment at the clinic instead of more drugs. Lilly has been selling sex in order to buy crack cocaine. Two of the clinic’s staff, Hank and Lincoln, follow James, offering to help him. She leaves the clinic and James follows her. Lilly learns that her grandmother is terminally ill and doesn’t have long to live. He leaves on friendly terms with his father who has a business engagement elsewhere His parents and counselor suggest these facts might offer some explanation for James’s addiction but he continues to insist that it is entirely personal responsibility. They also learned for the first time that his grandfather was an alcoholic. During their counseling sessions, they learn that when he was a child, he had an ear infection and that his parents left it untreated even though it caused him great distress. Lilly tells James that she was sold into prostitution as a child.ĭespite James’ objections to joining the family program, his parents come anyway. Lilly passes a note to James asking him to meet her outside they start an affair that breaks the rules of their clinic. As Leonard is telling the story, he starts to cry, which surprises James because of the respect he has for him. Leonard tells James about his traumatic childhood and how he started using drugs. However, James refused because he wanted to take responsibility for his own recovery, but this only made things worse as he couldn’t complete any tasks or continue with the Twelve Step program. After that, James’s parents called him and asked if they could join him at the clinic for family counseling sessions. His brother Leonard followed him to persuade James to come back. He left the clinic because he didn’t like it there. James was still struggling with his addiction, and he had a lot of anger. These two people help James as he tries to overcome his addiction. He also gets to know Leonard, who is the boss of a mafia group. James goes to a drugstore and meets Lilly, who helps him get through his withdrawal. They take him to rehab the next day because they’re horrified by how he looks after breaking his nose and several teeth while flying in the plane. When he lands, his parents are there to greet him. The book tells the story of James’s journey to recovery from addiction and how he dealt with other people in rehab. It was marketed as a memoir, but it turned out that the author invented many of his story’s details. 1-Page Summary of A Million Little Pieces Overall SummaryĪ Million Little Pieces is a 2003 book by American writer James Frey.
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