James Frey: Love Thy Enemy
Liar. Whiner. Very bad writer. James Frey has been called a lot of things, but no one can call the guy impolite.
At an appearance to promote his new book, Bright Shiny Morning, in San Francisco on Friday, Mr. Frey was met by the forces of Down with Frey, an organization whose aims are pretty self-explanatory. But, here's the thing: Mr. Frey seemed to like them. On his Amazon promotional blog, Omnivoracious, Mr. Frey wrote that he'd "met a guy who had started a protest group called Down With Frey. I chatted with him for a couple minutes, and he was a nice, smart guy."
That guy is Jan Frel, an editor at AlterNet, who started Down With Frey with his wife, Hadley Suter. According to The SF Weeky's Snitch blogger, Andy Wright, they're kind of the only members.
Wright chronicles the brief encounter between Frel, Suter, and Frey and Frey's friend, "an extremely angry-looking guy with black hair and tattoos," including the moment when Mr. Frey's pal menaced Mr. Frel like a high school bully:
"You mess any shit up…." Black Hair Tattoed Guy hisses into Frel's face.
"And what?" Frel asks.
"Guess!" BHTG barks, and turns heel.
Contacted by Media Mob, Mr. Frel said the encounter was accurately described by Wright. He clarified his distaste for Mr. Frey, writing, "The problem is as much with his audience and the literary world in the U.S.—the NYT, and Vanity Fair's favorable treatment of him demonstrates the zombie-like lack of accountability for failure, disgrace, and decadence that's emerging as status quo in all aspects of society. It's tied to the same decadent trend that leaves Bush still standing after robbing the country blind and committing real war crimes."
On Friday, SF Weekly's Ms. Wright asked Mr. Frey what he thought of his two-person backlash: The author responded, "I think it's awesome!"
What a guy! We bet he was that cool when Porterhouse hit him in the head with a tray in prison too. Oh, right... That never happened.
While I was very disappointed in his actions concerning his first book...if you have been addicted to alcohol or drugs you will still take away important lessons from the book. Being an alcoholic and liver transplant patient...the book took me back to my time in rehab. It reminded me how hard it was to quit and the despair I suffered at times. Just because you are dry doesn't make you happy. It took me a year and then some to find happiness after I quit drinking. So yes, I felt let down by what he did...but, there were still very valuable lessons to be learned from his book. Also, I think it becomes very unfair to keep beating on him. He knows what he did and has paid his dues for it. Time to let up on him and move on. Anyone can screw up and everyone deserves a second chance and to move on in his or her life. I think Mr. Frel should move on in his life and perhaps he and his wife are a bit jealous of Frey's success with his new book.
Of course, Frey hasn't actually "paid his dues" at all. The man's lie made him rich and famous, to the point that his current novel (which by most accounts is somewhere between mediocre and quite bad) still gets high-profile reviews and sells very, very well. And meanwhile, lots of honest people who write creative nonfiction are having their own integrity questioned and are unable to find publishers because of the perception-- perpetuated by the James Freys and Margaret Seltzers of the world-- that memoir is a form for selfish, egotistical liars. As far as I can see, nobody's really "beating on" James Frey-- he's living a much more comfortable life than most people in America. But those of us who expect honesty (and the ability to write) in a nonfiction narrative will probably continue to point out that he's a lying hack whenever he tried to inject himself into the popular culture, mainstream media, or literary world.