Oprah turned on one of her favorite authors Thursday, attacking James Frey, author of A Million Little Pieces for taking liberties with the truth in a book billed as a "non-fiction memoir".
In the book, Frey claimed that he had spent 3 months in jail when in fact, he never spent more than a few hours. He also claimed to have had root canals administered with no Novocaine.
Apparently Frey's "true" story of drug addiction and recovery has been substantially embellished and exaggerated.
In his defense, he did say that names, places and events had been changed to to protect the privacy of 3rd parties but the story is essentially TRUE.
This controversy begs a few Questions of our authors:
When does fictionalizing a story cross the line?
Is James Frey covered by dramatic license or is he a liar, liar pants on fire?
As a reader, would you feel ripped off or betrayed if you discovered that a book or story that you had read that was billed as true was significantly changed?