Customer Reviews

A Million Little Lies

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

James Pinnochio's hysterical parody of James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces" will cause any reader who followed the Frey controversy to collapse in giggles. Starting with the cover art of a baby's foot covered in ice cream sprinkles, and extending through every Frey nuance, "A Million Little Lies" is just one funny book.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good laugh.

'A Million Little Lies' may look like a cheap James Frey parody thrown together in about a week by some hack hoping for a quick buck -- and it is -- but the hackwork is so funny and captures Frey's pseudoliterary ticks so exactly that I laughed out loud on the New York subway. This resulted in a seat becoming available. Thank you, James Pinocchio!

As an extended riff on James Frey's book, 'A Million Little Pieces', this is actually not poorly done. At lots of little turns in the plot, there are direct parallels to the hero of Frey's book.

First, some background, for those not in the know. James Frey wrote a book, 'A Million Little Pieces', that was presented as a tough-to-read memoir of his own experiences. It was an Oprah selection. It had wide acclaim. Unfortunately, the longer the book was in the spotlight, the more its credibility was called into question, until Frey finally admitted it was not the all-the-truth-all-the-time narrative he'd originally presented it as being.

It has since become the object of jokes and derision. This book by Pinocchio (a pen name for Pablo Fenjves) is one of these efforts. Pinocchio wakes in pain not remembering how he got where he was, and goes through mock-parallels of the harrowing events Frey describes (drug addiction is subtituted by addiction to a more frivolous living, etc.).

In the end, it is really a bit too much. While Frey's book had at least the virtue of trying to deal with difficult subjects in a serious way (albeit with an ultimately fatal flaw in the execution), I am lost of the point on Pinocchio's book. Like the children's story of Pinocchio, which could be told in a much shorter page length, a parody of Frey's book could also be more effective as a cautionary tale if presented in a different way.

Laugh out loud funny. As someone married to someone who went through a treatment facility and read the horribly annoying A Million Little Pieces, I LOVED LOVED LOVED the tongue-in-cheek humor. Well written. A fun read.

If you didn't read A Million Little Pieces, this book probably won't make much sense. I found it hilarious. Oh, and by the way...Frey didn't "embellish."
He lied.

I read this right on the tail of finishing "A Million Little Pieces", the book it parodied.
I found the James Frey version waaaay more over the top than this and waaaaay less amusing. THIS BOOK CRACKED ME UP!!

From the name of the book to the author's pseudonym, there is nothing original in this book. On top of that, the book is horribly written. It attempts to copy Frey's writing style and utterly fails - because "Pinocchio" doesn't understand how parodies or satires work. James simply held A Million Little Pieces up to a mirror and copied everything he saw - and it came out as backwards garbage. He forgets the most basic building block of humor: wit. I would expect satire of this caliber from a C-average high school student.

Bottom line: A Million Little Pieces is practically crap, and regurgitated crap is just disgusting.

It is obvious almost from the beginning that this book is full of big lies. The filthy language and the constant, detailed description of vomiting drove me nuts and made me slightly nauseous. I know enough about Hazeldon to know that organization would not have tolerated the behavior James described. What an ego this man has. I threw it away before I finished it. Shame on you, James Frey. Shame on me for buying this book. What a waste of money.

a horribly misguided attempt at satire. I'm honestly appalled that a publisher would even read this book, let alone pick it up for publication. SAVE YOUR MONEY.

okay i know james frey lied and stuff, but seriously.... who takes the time to write this garbage out of spite? this is a rediculous waste of time.