Short description
"The most lacerating tale of drug addiction since William S. Burroughs' Junky." --"The Boston Globe
"Again and again, the book delivers recollections that leave the reader winded and unsteady. James Frey's staggering recovery memoir could well be seen as the final word on the topic."--"San Francisco Chronicle
"A brutal, beautifully written memoir."--"The Denver Post
"Gripping . . . A great story . . . You can't help but cheer his victory." --"Los Angeles Times Book Review
Long description
The most lacerating tale of drug addiction since William S. Burroughs' Junky. -- The Boston Globe Again and again, the book delivers recollections that leave the reader winded and unsteady. James Frey's staggering recovery memoir could well be seen as the final word on the topic. -- San Francisco Chronicle A brutal, beautifully written memoir. -- The Denver Post Gripping . . . A great story . . . You can't help but cheer his victory. -- Los Angeles Times Book Review
Review
From the get-go, [Frey's] book sets itself a part, its narrative unspooling in short, unindented paragraphs and barely punctuated sentences whose spare, deadpan language belies the horror of what he's describing - a meltdown dispatched in telegrams. -- The New York Times Book Review
One of the best stories of transformation I've ever read. . . . Anyone who has ever felt broken and wished for a better life will find inspiration in Frey's story. This won't be the last we'll hear of him. -- People
A ripping, gripping read. It's a staggeringly sober book whose stylistic tics are well-suited to its subject matter, and a finger in the eye of the culture of complaint . . . Engrossing. -- Philadelphia Inquirer
A frenzied, electrifying description of the experience. - The New Yorker
We finish A Million Little Pieces like miners lifted out of a collapsed shaft: exhausted, blackened, oxygen-starved, but alive, thrillingly, amazingly alive. -Minneapolis Star-Tribune
One of the most compelling books of the year... Incredibly bold...Somehow accomplishes what three decades' worth of cheesy public service announcements and after-school specials have failed to do: depict hard-core drug addiction as the self-inflicted apocalypsethat it is. - The New York Post
Thoroughly engrossing . . . Hard-bitten existentialism bristles on every page . . . Frey's prose is muscular and tough, ideal for conveying extreme physical anguish and steely determination. -Entertainment Weekly
Incredible... Mesmerizing...Heart-rending. - Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A rising literary star... has birthed a poetic account of his recovery. [A Million Little Pieces is] stark... disturbing... rife with raw emotion... - Chicago Sun-Times
Frey will probably be hailed in turn as the voice of a generation. - Elle Magazine
We can admire Frey for his fierceness, his extremity, his solitary virtue, the angry ethics of his barroom tribe, and his victory over his furies... A compelling book. - New York Magazine
An intimate, vivid and heartfelt memoir. Can Frey be the greatest writer of his generation? Maybe. - New York Press
Incredible... A ferociously compelling memoir. -Cleveland Plain Dealer
Insistent as it is demanding... A story that cuts to the nerve of addiction by clank-clank-clanking through the skull ofthe addicted... A critical milestone in modern literature. - Orlando Weekly
At once devastatingly bleak and heartbreakingly hopeful. . . . Frey somehow manages to make his step-by-step walk through recovery compelling. - Charlotte Observer
A stark, direct and graphic documentation of the rehabilitation process . . . The strength of the book comes from the truth of the experience. - The Oregonian
A virtual addiction itself, viscerally affecting . . . Compulsively readable. - City Paper (Washington, DC)
Powerful . . . haunting . . . addictive . . . A beautiful story of recovery and reconciliation. - Iowa City Press-Citizen
An exhilarating read . . . Frey's intense, punchy prose renders his experiences with electrifying immediacy. - Time Out New York
Describes the hopelessness and the inability to stop with precision . . . As anyone who has ever spent time in a rehab can testify, . . . he gets that down too. - St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Frey comes on like the world's first recovering-addict hero. . . . [His] criticism of the twelve-step philosophy is provocative and his story undeniably compelling. - GQ
[A] gruesomelyabsorbing account, told in stripped-down, staccato prose. - Details
Frey has devised a rolling, pulsating style that really moves . . . undeniably striking. . . . A fierce and honorable work that refuses to glamorize [the] author's addiction or his thorny personality. . . . A book that makes other recovery memoirs look, well, a little pussy-ass. - Salon