"At the age of twenty-three, James Frey woke up on a plane to find his four front teeth had been knocked out. His nose was broken and there was a hole through his cheek. He had no idea where the plane was headed or what had happened over the preceding two weeks. He had been an alcoholic for ten years and a crack addict for three. When he checked into a treatment facility shortly thereafter, he was told he could either stop using or die before he reached twenty-four."

Another copy I picked up at Goodwill. I've already read it (see review below), but figured someone else might want to.

My review: I really had trouble putting this one down once I started. It was actually better than I expected. The lack of punctuation and quotes IS confusing...trying to figure out who said what and if it was a thought or something said out loud. But once I put my mind past that, it really didn't bother me so much. Kind of made it seem more authentic. Despite the disturbing subject matter, I really enjoyed this book. It made me want to know more. I had a vague idea of the controversy surrounding the book, but at the time I read it, I hadn't actually read or seen any of the Oprah or Larry King confrontations (other than what friends & co-workers had told me they'd seen and heard). I do think a memoir should be true to life, but on the other hand, a good story is a good story, and I think that's what this book was, whether it was fact or partially fiction.

It's wrapped & ready to go to brewski in Canada, via relay. Planning to get to the post office on 4/11/07. Happy travels!

Thanks indygo88, I am looking forward to reading this very soon.

This was a very interesting read that had me alternating between feelings of fascination in having a glimpse into how the the mind of an addict works, and disbelief that anybody could allow themselves to become addicted in the first place. I definitely enjoyed reading this and now I will have to go hunt down some comments on which portions of this "memoir" are fictional, because I intentionally did not read any comments about the controversy surrounding this book beforehand.

Gave this to my wife who expressed an interest in reading this book. I bullied her into signing up for bookcrossing, now let's see if she actually journals this book ;)

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Left on a seat on the Southbound Yonge-University-Spadina line.

To the finder of this book:
Hello and congratulations! You have not only found yourself a good book, but a whole community of booklovers dedicated to sharing books with each other and the world at large. I hope you'll stick around a bit and get to know BookCrossing --maybe even make a journal entry on this book. You may choose to remain anonymous or to join (its free!) And if you do choose to join, I hope you'll consider using me, brewski, as your referring member.

Feel free to read and keep this book, or to pass it on to a friend or even set it out "in the wild" for someone else to find like you did. If you do choose to join and journal, then you can watch the book as it travels- You'll be alerted by email each time someone makes another journal entry. It's all confidential (you're known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address), free, and spam-free. Happy reading!