{"id":13942,"date":"2025-07-18T09:29:35","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T16:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=13942"},"modified":"2025-07-18T09:29:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T16:29:40","slug":"beyond-the-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2025\/07\/18\/beyond-the-bird\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond “The Bird”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

from Moffly Media<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Canaan\u2019s Notorious Neighbor \u2013 James Frey\u2019s Fictional Drama Hits Close to Home<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

by Jill Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

THE APPROACH TO JAMES FREY\u2019S HOUSE FEELS LIKE A DRIVE THROUGH THE PAGES OF HIS LATEST BOOK<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The landscape unfolds with rambling farmhouses and faux French chateaus\u2014each boasting a dozen bathrooms and perimeters marked by quaint fieldstone walls that quiet the opulence. It\u2019s particularly picturesque in the bloom of spring, as perfect as New Bethlehem, the fictional town where Frey\u2019s book, Next to Heaven<\/em>, is set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s no secret that the setting is modeled on New Canaan; the town\u2019s history, outlined in detail by Frey, and its shops, landmarks and parks mirror our own. But are the characters ours, too? That\u2019s the question that left some residents sleepless in their Frette linens as they anticipated the book\u2019s release in June. And now that the juicy novel is out, reading lights are burning bright across the \u201cNext Station to Heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his newest release, Frey draws from the salacious novels of Jackie Collins and Danielle Steele\u2014surprising inspirations for an author who says he pursued writing because of men like Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac and Kurt Vonnegut. But Frey is not what one might expect from a man quick to give the world the middle finger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frey\u2019s neighborhood is dotted with the occasional modern home, placing us squarely in The Ice Storm<\/em> country. New Canaan was also the setting for Ang Lee\u2019s 1997 film based on Rick Moody\u2019s eponymous novel about a key party that wreaks havoc on its characters\u2019 lives and community. Next to Heaven<\/em> features its own spouse-swapping shindig. It\u2019s the kind of thing that can make a small town edgy. Was it based on an actual swingers party? My mission would be to find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ click to continue reading at Moffly Media<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from Moffly Media New Canaan\u2019s Notorious Neighbor \u2013 James Frey\u2019s Fictional Drama Hits Close to Home by Jill Johnson THE APPROACH TO JAMES FREY\u2019S HOUSE FEELS LIKE A DRIVE THROUGH THE PAGES OF HIS LATEST BOOK The landscape unfolds with rambling farmhouses and faux French chateaus\u2014each boasting a dozen bathrooms and perimeters marked by quaint […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conversation-information","category-culture-art","category-literary-news","category-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}