A Million Little Pieces/My Friend Leonard-Nick Williams

A Million Little Pieces/ My Friend Leonard

James Frey

448 pages

357 pages

Rating: 10/10

So for this quarter I chose to read A Million Little Pieces, and My Friend Leonard. I chose to do both for the Literary Cafe because they were both such good books, probably the best I've ever read. James Frey is officially my favorite author. I do not recommend this book for sensitive readers because it does have very explicit language. I like James Freys books because of how its written. Its written in a way that is easy to understand. This book was even aired on “Oprah”. There was controversy with the readers that some of the things stated in this book were not true. But, I could honestly care less. It was a great story and thats all that should matter. For those wondering, this is memoir/fiction.

So it starts off with James Frey, a 23 year old waking up, on a plane not knowing where it is headed or having any idea what happened to him over the past few weeks. James noticed that his 4 front teeth were missing, a hole in his cheek, and open sores on his face. His clothing was stained and covered with vomit, urine, snot, blood, and spit. At this point he was wanted in 3 states. He had no luggage, no money, and no identification. He was a drug addict, alcoholic, and a criminal. This is a quote you will hear quite a bit in this story.

Come to find out, his mother and father were taking him to a treatment center in Minnesota. While they drove to the treatment center, James commanded his father to get him strong alcohol and a pack of cigarettes at the gas station. So as you can see, he had a problem. Over the stay at the treatment center he met many different characters. One whom saves his life and becomes his best friend. His name is Leonard. He is a mobster and a very powerful man. The unusual thing is that Leonard never mentions anything about his work. James also meets a judge, boxer, and other addicts. They eventually all become friends.

The first day at the treatment center James is told by a doctor that if he picks up another pipe or glass of alcohol he could be dead within days. I think thats what motivated James to quit. He was just scared to die. On his first day he also met a a girl named Lilly and he immediately fell in love. Lilly, ran away from her home at a young age and moved in with her grandmother. Lets just say, she has had a very tough life. The treatment center prohibits male to female contact but James and Lilly do whenever they get the chance. They eventually start sneaking out to the woods so they can be together.

James disagrees with a lot of his counselors and therapists. For instance, that alcoholism is a disease. James says alcoholism is not a disease, it is a choice. People make excuses and cannot be responsible for the choices they make. You choose to pick up a drink, people with cancer do not choose to have cancer. I guess what James is trying to say is to be responsible for your own actions. I completely agree with him. James is a very independent person.

As James gets better, the relationship with his parents also get better. He gets more comfortable around people, less aggressive, and more happy. As his life starts to get better there is one problem. He is still wanted in 3 states so there's going to be some jail time once he gets out of the treatment center. His counselors and his friend who is a judge tell him that he could serve up to 3 years in the State of Ohio. His friend who is a judge and counselor gets him off the hook with 2 states. Unfortunately they tell him that he has a fifty fifty chance of a minimized sentence with Ohio. Luckily, James got 8 months in jail instead of 3 years in prison. I wont give you any more spoilers so your just gonna have to read the book to find out what happens in the end.

In the book, ''My Friend Leonard'' it starts right where James left off in “A Million Little Pieces”. It starts with James talking about his life in jail. He then gets a call from Lilly saying that her grandmother had just died of cancer. Coincidentally, James gets out of jail the next day. So the next day James went to go pick up his items and sign out of jail, the only things he had to his name was a couple of bucks, car keys, and stale cigarettes.

Sadly, when James reached Chicago, Lilly had committed suicide in her bathroom by hanging herself. Her autopsy showed that she was sober when she died. So James immediately wanted to drink so with the little money he has, he buys strong cheap alcohol, a bottle of Rose wine to be more precise.

Many months pass and James still has his bottle of Rose unopened.

Putting this book in summary is very difficult because its basically James' life. I can tell you that its one of those books when you read it until the end, everything makes sense, everything you wondered about in the beginning of the story is answered. The ending is shocking and extremely sad. You just have to read it to find out for yourself.

As you read James Freys books, you wil notice that on the last page of his books, he thanks everyone. In conclusion, these were two great stories.