Ames said he plans to publish letters from Frey's outraged fans that poured in after last year's eXile editorial. "People were writing us, saying, 'How dare you call him a liar! James has been through real suffering.' So it's really kind of fun reading them now."
--
And here they are!
A Million Small Fries: Frey-ster Hate MailFrom: Kickthecan27 at aol.com
Date: 24 November 2005
Subject: james frey
lol,
james frey may be vain. he may be stupid. but he's a hell of a lot more successful than your pathetic ass will ever be. what are you? some sort of critic? a fine, trickle down career you've chosen for yourself. I find it funny that you rip his conjunction use and his way of using capital letters which is very typical of morons in the cyber age. What a cheap, weak point you make. The point about the Bush age also boggles considering the story takes place years before the Dope got "elected".
Most people who read do so because they like stories. They don't care what assholes like you think. Assholes who use pretentious words like avant-garde and think they're the gate keepers of literature. Why don't you write a book? probably because you can't because you suck. suck. Suck. suck. (if you have written a book/s, where the fuck is it? wait, let me guess, its society's fault for not recognizing YOUR genius, right?)
get fucked brother,
Anon.
From: CRitacca at aol.com
Date: 12 December 2005
Subject: James Frey review
Mr. Dolan,
You are ovioulsy a person who has never felt real pain, being an addict or not. I myself am not an addict, but relate to the pain he portrays in the struggle of being a human being. Although, you are fat and bald, I'm sure you've had your share of being picked on and your share of anger. You should have become a police officer. You have missed the entire meaning of the book, which tells this reader you must be one of the less intelligent people who have no real things to say and are jealous of those who do. I think you should find another career.
Anon.
Date: December 13 2005
Mr. Dolan,
All I can say is how dare you!!!!! Have you lived in such a closed world that you somehow think you have the power to degrade the integrity and honesty of a young man whois willing to share his life story with others??
Yes James Frey fucked up but he came out ontop and look at him now! You opinions angered me they way you took the mickey out of his honesty and the truth of his book how dare you how about you get off your high horse and the pedderstool you have managed to out yourself and take a good look at your life! A million little pieces is real life it is frightning and true it is touching made me laugh and made me cry.
And how dare you tease and poke fun at the way he wrote about lilly and
leonard you obviuosy have never had anyone touch you to the core and helkp you get through the bumps in your perfect lil life.
I am angry beyond words and would be intrested in your reply from you wake up buddie this is REALITY!!!
sincerly
Hannah Key
From: "jere hernandez" chubby
Date: 10 December 2005
Subject: A Million Little Pieces
Dear Mr. Dolan,
This being the United States of America and all, of course, you are entitled to your opinion. I hope you'll understand, though, we are not all literary critics. Most of us are just everyday, average, mid-level educated people. We are trying desperately to understand the epidemic that is sweeping our country and ruining lives. I, for one, am no one special or even what I would call above average in any way, but what's important here is that I understood this book. It gave me a clearer picture of what possibly fuels the need of the addict to self-destruct. I need to know it. I need to understand it. I want to. Frey's book is just a memoir, I know, but it is insightful, provocative, unpleasant, and left me with a sense of wanting to help do something. Maybe it's not literary genius, but it moved me, a nobody from nowhere and that's why this book is great-whether you think so or not.
Thanks,
Jere Hernandez
Lancaster, CA
From: "Sandee"
Date: 11 December 2005
Subject: you review of A Million Little Pieces
You obviously know nothing of the pain of addiction or you might appreciate this memoir. I lost a son to addiciton and I can assure the pain is real for the addict and his family and to scoff at it as you did in this review just kind of sickens me. You can have all the money in the world and all the privileges that go with it and still have that pain. The tears are real and suffering and scars are real. I found my son dead in his nice comfortable bed. He wasn't out on the streets as I expected he would be if he ever succumbed to the effects of his drug use. That doesn't make his death less devastating to me, or maybe it does. It showed me that I couldn't protect him from the ravages of drug use. I wish I could be a voice for the pain and suffering and do it with honesty and humor. Life is tenuous and drugs kill and it takes a great deal of strength to overcome the hold they have on the body and brain of an abuser. Reading this book helps a non addict to understand the way an addict looks at life and death and survival. My son didn't have the strength that Frey has. But he had the same pain, fears, and lost dreams. You have a right to your thoughts, but I've got to wonder what you like to read.
Sandee
From: Jenny
Date: 2 January 2006
Dolan,
thats funny....stumbled across your MLP comments, not worth much. definitely hasn't sold a MLC (million little copies, that is) Th...th...th...thath all folks! good luck with your career
Jenny
From: "Pam Spall"
Date: 15 December 2005
Subject: book review
You are without a doubt "A Million Pieces of Shit". Shame on you for such a review. I pity you and such a sick personality. Wha,wha, wha
Pam Spall
From: lenoxbrown at bellsouth.net
Date: 14 December 2005
Subject: a million pieces of shit
You are out of your fucking mind. You and people like yourself are what degrades this country. Have you any decency or any understanding for James Frey? Obviously not. You, are a piece of shit, not Frey or his book.
Anon.
From: Julia Froehlich
Date: 14 December 2005
Subject: James Frey
You have to be on of the stupidest men alive. How can you say that James Frey's book is "A Million Pieces Of Shit". Just because he did drugs does not mean that he is incapable of making an amazing book. How is a book that he is writing about his life story stupid. Your life might as well be stupid because you are an idiot. A brainless TWIT! You should be ashamed of yourself!!!
Julia
Date: 12 December 2005
just about 10 minutes ago i finished a million little pieces, and i am amazed at what a great book it is. i go online to search more about it and i come upon your review, and i am disgusted. james frey went through so much crap in his life, and took the time to write a book to share it with other people. people who may be going through the same problems as he, or maybe even worse, or possibly no problems at all. i for one, am not into drugs, and im 16, but i have many close friends that are. i have friends that are in and out of hospitals, a friend that comes to school with gashes on his forearm that are so deep that his veins are able to be seen and touched. and for you to go and mock his life and feeling and thoughts??? maybe if you were or are a drug addict and alcoholic, then possibly i can respect your review. but right now i feel that you're pathetic to go and write a review that horrible about a man who went through so much, wanted to let everybody know his story, and helped so many people out there.
Anon.
From: johnnyroberta at earthlink.net
Date: 12 December 2005
You are a complete idiot if you thought that "A million little pieces" by James Frey was a piece of shit....what's good litterature to you. Paris Hilon's Life story!!!!
Johnny
From: JIMMAKA at aol.com
Date: 30 December 2005
Dolan,
I thought your Book Review was harsh. I actually enjoyed the book and didn't want to put it down. I will agree though that the noun thing distracted me. I started going page by page to see which words were capitalized and which weren't and wondering why. I figured the quote thing right away. It was a great story despite whether he was rich or not. Now I'm wondering where he got the money to live in an apartment in New York and write for ten years since he refused to take money from his parents. Do you think parts of his story are untrue? Did he not meet and fall in love with Lily? Just curious.
Barb
Date: 5 January 2006
Mr. Dolan,
Thank you for writing about the dishonesty of James Frey. I can't believe this charlatan is getting away with such obvious bullshit. I don't know a heck of a lot about drugs. It's just never been my thing. But when I got to the last page and read about all those oh-so sappy deaths, I did a little research to confirm things that seemed suspicious to me. Here is what I found. Frey says he entered rehab in 1993, at age 23. That puts his stay in Hazelton beginning no later than September 10th, 1993 and ending in late October. But the fight he describes watching with his fellow patients (Bowe-Hollyfield III) took place in 1995. And he and Lenard watch the Cleveland Browns play the Pittsburgh Steelers on his first weekend in the clinic. Small problem. They didn't play unti October 24th of that year. Also no former Flyweight champions of the world were shot down outsid of a crack house in the last 10 years. Most disturbing is his portrayl of "Miles Davis". This character is supposed to be a federal judge in New Orleans who sentenced "a couple" people to be executed. Well, between 1968 and 2001 there were exactly zero federal executions. There were three people sentenced to die in 1993, but not in New Orleans. Strange coincidence but I did some digging and it turns out the judge who sentenced these three men to die is black. If "Miles Davis" is indeed loosely based on a real person, then these guys were sentenced to die by a man keeping a bottle of hooch under his desk. (They were convicted in the spring of 1993, "Davis" goes into rehab about six months later.) I am tempted to pass this nugget along to someone like Helen Prejean or Mike Farrell but I am so confident that this whole thing is bullshit that I would feel like an ass when they look into it and realize that this was a wild goose chase. And if you go to Amazon and read the one and two star reviews, you'll see plenty of people who tear apart the dentist trip and the flying in a semi-concscious state. And how co
uld anyone really believe that this asshole killed some dude for putting his hand on his thigh? And then wrote about it in some detail. Right.
Anyway, I'm going to do my part to discourage people from reading this horrible book. Thank you for doing the same. Take care,
Frank Venis
Date: 5 January 2006
Dolan;
I forced myself to read this horrible book, and it is nice to see that at least one person in the world finds it as stupid and offensive as I do. I have worked as a paramedic, and in the ER as an RN. Anyone that buys this guys macho bullshit has never known a drug addict. They cry like little girls when they don't get their way.
Anyway, it was good to read your review! Thanks for the vindication, I was starting to think there was something I missed in the book. But I had no intentions of subjecting myself to it again.
Jim Gibson
Dolan,
How much hate mail do you receive in response to your "reviews" of James Frey's work? "Memoirists like Frey and Augusten Burroughs belong to the long list of those who should never have stopped using drugs. The drugs might have made Frey more interesting, or they might have killed him. Either way, American literature would have benefited."
How incredibly offensive to suggest that someone should remain addicted to deadly substances, but since you have nothing else to offer, I suppose you threw it in there to get a rise out of readers. Clearly the writing style -- the tics and repitition meant to mimic Frey's sense of urgency and uncertainty -- were lost on you. And unless you have first hand experience with drug addiction and alcoholism you are in NO position to claim Frey's memoir is a work of fiction. What experience have you had with chemical dependency that gives you the right to make assumptions about his symptoms, withdrawals, risk of relapse, etc.?
In regard to your equally offensive comments about Lilly, I pose the same question: what experience do you have with prostitution, rape, and having your own parent sell you for drugs? Frey has said many times (perhaps if you did research you would know this) that the names and some of the circumstances of the people in the book have been altered out of respect (not that I would expect you to know anything about that). So your snide remark about Lilly's movie star-esque name gives your review less credibility, a facet it was already sorely lacking. You are, of course, entitled to your opinion of the book, but what you wrote is not a review or a column but an extremely biased and narrow minded attack on the books (which, incedentally, are NY Times/Publishers Weekly/USA Today bestsellers, and have both made Amazon's best books of the year list...AMLP was Amazon's #1 pick in '03, Leonard was #5 this year). You claim to dislike Frey's repititive writing, but all you do is repeat and recycle phrases (which you seem to think are clever) about how much you don't like it. But I guess the difference there is he's a bestseller and you are light years away from being anything that even remotely resembles an author.
Have you read Dan Brown's books? Maybe you should stick with those -maybe they're a little more your style: shallow, gimmicky, and badly written ->just like your review!
Allison Mudge
Date: 10 January 2006
Subject: Frey's Lies
Mark:
I met you at your book-signing in NYC several weeks ago. I sincerely hope I am the first to deliver to you the following wonderful news: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0104061jamesfrey1.html
As they say, glory to John Dolan.
Best Regards,
Andy
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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