Larry King Liveblogging: James Frey Defends Himself

I realize that by liveblogging James Frey's appearance on Larry King Live, I'll probably be aiding and abetting his brazen attempt to turn disgrace into dollars, on the premise that there's no such thing as bad publicity. So what's my excuse? Some of us have to be watching with a jaundiced eye. I've already heard Larry's teaser for the piece on Paula Zahn Tonight, and it was predictably lenient, heavy on Frey's sales figures and "Hemingway-like" writing style.

9:02: The recap of the story. We see the face of Sgt. David Dudgeon, who made the drunk driving bust that Frey supposedly blew up into a three-month jail stay.

Random House does not think it's necessary to investigate.

Larry points out that The Smoking Gun is owned by Court TV, which is owned by Time Warner, which owns CNN.

"A memoir is a subjective retelling of events," says Frey, but "within the genre of nonfiction."

Only 18 pages, or less than 5% of over 400 pages, are disputed. That's the smartest thing he's said: it makes it sound as if The Smoking Gun, too, is exaggerating.

"I acknowledge that there were embellishments . . . things were toned up, things were toned down . . . names were changed, details were changed to protect people . . . there's a great debate about memoir, and what should be most properly served, the story or some idea of journalistic truth."

LK: But readers expect that "the facts written down are what happened."

"It's the individual's perception of what happened in their life. This is my recollection of what happened in my life . . . 15 or 20 years ago, a lot of it under the influence of drugs and alcohol."

He hasn't called Oprah. Asked if he owes her a call, he says if she wants to talk to him she'll call him.

Frey is sort of a soft, clean guy with a smooth, rosy face, wary eyes, curly receding hair, a soft beard, a slight lisp and prissy, nasal, droning, effeminate enunciation. He says "ahm" a lot. Whoever made the comparison to Norman Mailer was on the mark -- Mailer was a nice Jewish boy (I don't know if Frey is Jewish) who aspired to be a tough and a bad guy.

King: Random House denies reports it's offering a special refund on the book. If you're unhappy, take it back to your bookstore.

Frey: "I think of the book as working in a long tradition of what American writers have done in the past." He mentions Hemingway and Bukowski, says the memoir didn't exist in their day. He uses the awful phrase Winston mentioned, "creative nonfiction." He says it's a "subjective account."

"I mean, I don't discuss being in a jail cell in this book. 433 pages of it take place in a treatment facility." The jail cell scene is at the beginning of My Friend Leonard, which has a disclaimer.

King gives him an out: "Do you think you had memory loss?"

"Sure. I had a drug and alcohol addiction. My memory's very subjective."

Frey says he has no bad feelings for The Smoking Gun, they're just doing their job. If he'd had anything to hide from them he would never have spoken to them.

"I don't know if any memoir has ever been so carefully vetted so long after its publication . . . that's what comes with selling a lot of copies, that's what comes with success. . . . It was an honor to be chosen for Oprah's book club. If this is the price of success, I'll pay it."

The book is about drug and alcohol addiction, he says, and it's the impact it's had on people's lives that matters to him, more than success, he says. He is unperturbed and undefensive.

"Of course this is going to affect me, but I hope my readership remains focused on what is going on here."

"I still stand by the book as the essential truth of my life, and I'll stand by it till . . . (long pause) till the day I die."

Larry King is having trouble stretching this out to an hour. He starts darting desperately around, asking, "How'd you get on drugs? How'd you get off them?"

"I take responsibility for who I am, I always have, that's who I am and that's what I do." Frey looks around evasively, expressionlessly, as he says this. His voice is toneless and droning, electronic-sounding, as he says "I'll get through the week, and I'll be fine," in response to Larry's question whether this stress could lead him to relapse.

He is visibly nervous about how Oprah's going to react to all this, but has only good words for her and her staff. Says he had a wonderful experience with them that he'll cherish for the rest of his life.

"Do you wish now it was published as a novel?"

"No, I feel very very comfortable calling it a memoir."

The callers-in are all female so far. And in recovery. And full of gratitude and admiration. He's gotten hundreds of e-mails from readers, friends and family. His publishers have been "incredibly supportive."

"This is a memoir."

"People think of a memoir as fact." Larry King getting gently, reluctantly tough. Frey brings up other disputed memoirs -- Kosinski's The Painted Bird. This happens to "high-profile" memoirs, he says.

King: "And Jerzy killed himself. -- I'm not suggesting -- heh -- " Jeez. Gag yourself with your foot, Larry.

His beaming blonde mom Lynne is on now. "The fraud story is very sad for us. . . . I'm disappointed, I don't believe it, I believe in James, the book stands on its own." A parole officer called her at 11:30 last night and said, "'I just want to tell you that we use James's book with our parolees and it's making a wonderful difference.' I have to believe in all those people it's made a difference for." This book is being presented as an act of charity, motivated solely by the desire to help others.

Frey is married, to "a great wife who's been great through all this," has a 1-year-old daughter, and lives in New York City.

King asks his mother, "Do you ever worry about him going back?" "Never." "Do you ever worry about these developments sending him back?" His mother acknowledges that it's been a difficult week but says no, absolutely not, she has faith in James. Larry keeps pushing it.

This is disgusting. I'm ashamed to be documenting it. Larry King is such a hyena.

To his readers: "I hope the emotional truth of it will resonate with them. I couldn't have written it if I hadn't been through a lot of the things that are in it." (Emphasis added. Not all of them! But factual truth doesn't matter -- "emotional truth" does.)

OPRAH CALLS ON THE PHONE. "Hi James, Hi Lynn."

They chant in unison like children, "HI, OPRAH!!"

She wanted to hear what James had to say, but she stands by the book. What matters to her is the impact of "the written word and its message. Of course I am disappointed by this controversy because I rely on the publishers to define the category a book falls in and also the authenticity of the book [ah! She's blaming the publisher.]. . . I know maybe dates and times have been compressed because that's what a memoir is . . . but the underlying message of redemption still resonates with me, and I know it still resonates with millions of others who've read this book and will continue to read this book. . . . I've been calling this number and it's been busy," wanting to get through to say this is a book about addiction and recovery and "the essence of that I don't doubt; whether the car rolled up and whether he hit the police officer isn't relevant to me. What is relevant is that he was a drug addict, spent years in turmoil, tormenting himself and his parents, and stepped out of that to be the man that he is today."

King: "You hold him no ill will and still recommend the book?"

Oprah: "I think this is going to open up the discussion with publishers, and for me the bigger question is, what does this mean for the larger publishing world in this memoir category? As James says, this is a new category. . . . To me this seems like much ado about nothing because if you read the book, so much of the story, the majority of the story is inside the clinic."

James, palpably relieved and animated: "I admire you tremendously, and thank you very much for your support, and I'm still incredibly honored to be" involved with Oprah.

The show has gone over time rather than cut Oprah short. Anderson Cooper asks Larry what he thinks. Larry says memory is unreliable, he thinks 45 years later that the first person he ever interviewed was Bobby Darin, but he's not sure. (And he was probably sober!) Anderson asks what the impact will be on book sales. Larry says Oprah's call will send them up.

No such thing as bad publicity.

_________________________________

UPDATE: Husband and wife, journalist and author Gay Talese and Doubleday editor Nan A. Talese, James Frey's publisher, disagree about what the meaning of "nonfiction" is:

Mr. Talese, a renowned author of nonfiction books and former reporter for The New York Times, said in an interview today that he believed it was unacceptable for an author or a publisher to present as nonfiction a work that included any composite or fictional characters or made-up events or that otherwise blurred the lines between truth and fiction.

"Nonfiction takes no liberty with the facts, and it should not," Mr. Talese said. "I think all writers should be held accountable. The trouble with book publishers is that they don't have the staff or they don't want to have the staff to ensure the veracity of a writer. You could argue that they had better, or they're going to have more stories like this one. My wife is going to hate me for this, but that is what I believe."

His wife, Ms. Talese, whose Nan A. Talese imprint at Random House Inc.'s Doubleday division published Mr. Frey's book, disagreed, saying that a memoir cannot be held to the same standard as history or biography.

"Nonfiction is not a single monolithic category as defined by the best-seller list," she said today when asked to comment on her husband's remarks. "Memoir is personal recollection. It is not absolute fact. It's how one remembers what happened. That is different from history and criticism and biography, and they cannot be measured by the same yardstick."

She added, "I adore Gay, but this is a debate that we've been having for 40 years."

Ms. Talese declined to comment, however, on whether or not Mr. Frey's account of his life is true.

From Gay & Lesbian Books.

Comments

[Richard Lawrence Cohen]

What really bugs me about this guy Frey is his implying that Hemingway wrote disguised memoirs. Hemingway was an artist. He wrote fiction that contained elements of his life. When he wrote nonfiction he called it that: A MOVEABLE FEAST, GREEN HILLS OF AFRICA, DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON. "...the memoir didn't exist in their day..." -- what a pile of nonsense.

[Alison]

Oh gosh. I laughed hysterically when I read, "This is disgusting. I'm ashamed to be documenting it. Larry King is such a hyena."

AND THEN Oprah called. Oprah! Sounds like she saved the show for King & Frey by calling in right at the moment when viewers were about to tune out. I can just see the producers jumping up and down with excitement, "Oprah's on the phone. Oprah's on the phone! Let's get her on the air!"

I haven't read Frey, but I've been a fan of the "drugmoir" for years. Like Richard, I'm surprised to see even this sub-genre described as new. Go Ask Alice, Baby Driver, Wonderland Avenue, and - of course - Fear & Loathing are a few that come immediately to mind. How accurate were they? And were they held to the same standards?

[Joe]

Wonderland Avenue. Danny Sugerman's book on life, booze, drugs and Jim Morrison. As a fan of The Doors, I've read about as many books as I can about Morrison's alcohol and drug abuse lifestyle.

Sugerman's wild ride was a well-written document to that age ... and his admiration for Morrison. Both are now together in the ether of the universe ... waiting for the sun.

Frey's book ... it is one that I have heard a lot about and a number of people that I know in recovery have read it. I don't know if I want to read it. Yet I do know this: Whether someone wants to parcel it up, slice and dice it and say this and that was not right ... if the book helps someone -- Just One Person -- in their recovery, then I do believe it has made some dent in the recovery realm.

Yet again ... just one man's opinion.