from Sion Dayson’s ‘Paris (im)perfect’
James Frey, After the Fact
Published June 4, 2010 Literary/Cultural Paris 2 Comments
Tags: shakespeare & co, literary, paris, james frey
Sex or violence?
This was the choice presented to us by author James Frey on Monday night at Shakespeare & Co. He would either read a passage of the sultry stuff or the gun stuff – the decision rested with us.
This being France, we went for the sex.
(Though wait! Immediately after, the audience then begged for the violence, too. I guess people always want it all).
For awhile, fact or fiction was the real question in regards to Frey. If you weren’t hiding under a rock around 2006, you probably remember him as the writer whose 2003 “memoir” A Million Little Pieces blew up into a big controversy. He was the man who duped Oprah. His memoir, you see, was partly “made up.”
I never read the book – I stayed above the fray (yes, pun intended) – but I can’t say I wasn’t curious to see the man behind the headlines, all these years later.
It’s a rare opportunity, really. Frey doesn’t do readings in the US anymore. Probably tired of answering the same questions.
But this is France, and Paris holds a special place in Frey’s heart. He came here as a 22 year-old, inspired by the “American writer in Paris myth,” he said. “Tropic of Cancer” by Henry Miller had “lit him up,” and he wanted to come here to experience the literary fire himself. It was something of a dream for Frey to return nearly two decades later as a visiting author to the famed Shakespeare & Co.