{"id":2402,"date":"2010-04-25T09:24:34","date_gmt":"2010-04-25T16:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2010\/04\/jamesfrey-thinks-his-new-book-could-work-or-be-the-biggest-disaster-ever\/"},"modified":"2010-04-26T09:28:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-26T16:28:00","slug":"jamesfrey-thinks-his-new-book-could-work-or-be-the-biggest-disaster-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/25\/jamesfrey-thinks-his-new-book-could-work-or-be-the-biggest-disaster-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"“#JamesFrey thinks his [new] book could work, or be the biggest disaster ever.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

from Tobi Elliot<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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oooooh, James Frey gets me riled up \u2013 which is exactly what he\u00a0wants!<\/a><\/h3>\n

25apr10<\/p>\n

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In the time betwixt when I eat my palate-cleansing pre-dinner salad and my platter of mouthwatering lamb and quinoa tonight, I will be mulling three things. First, which questions I\u2019ll ask Ezra Winton (of Cinema Politica fame) tomorrow about the state of Aboriginal filmmaking in Canada, following up on a story I\u2019ve been writing for about a month now (and which I\u2019m shopping around, if anyone is interested.) Secondly, how attractive apparel on a woman \u2013 namely 4-inch heels \u2013 will draw second and third glances from men in direct proportion to how painful said apparel is. And thirdly, why I cannot abide James Frey and will never read one of his creations, no matter how much we mutually dislike Oprah Winfrey.<\/p>\n

(Oh and I will also be thinking about recent conversations with documentary filmmaker Magnus Isacsson, most of which are highly confidential but I\u2019ll tell all here. Kidding! I\u2019ll write what I can. In a bit.)<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, to the despicable James Frey\u2026<\/p>\n

The Fourth Horseman of the literary world \u2013 a term coined by greater minds than mine \u2013 is in Montreal hawking his latest novel\u00a0Bright Shiny Morning<\/em>. Yes, that man, the\u00a0Million Little Pieces<\/em>\u00a0guy the world couldn\u2019t get enough of after he was outed on national television for having fabricated (or embellished, as he prefers to call it) his first book. That guy, who flouts every convention known to English writing, doesn\u2019t use quotation marks (\u201cooooohhhhh!\u201d cries the admiring public. \u201cHow very brave!\u201d) and thinks he\u2019s more bad-ass than Hustler S. Thompson. Yes, I said Hustler, because they\u2019re both just that: masters of cheap literary tricks and good at playing fast and loose with the world around them.<\/p>\n

I attended this talk at the Blue Metropolis, Montreal\u2019s literary-get-your-book-geek-hat-on festival, titled \u2018Face to Face with James Frey\u2019. The interview was hosted by a recent professor of mine, Joel Yanofsky, who did an excellent job asking some tough questions while maintaining a civil and friendly discourse. He\u2019s a brilliant interviewer (and I don\u2019t say that just because he gave me an \u2018A\u2019 in Magazine writing.) You can listen to the interview on CBC radio, though I\u2019m not sure when. It doesn\u2019t seem to be scheduled for any time in particular on the site. Should be either on the programIdeas<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Writers and Company<\/a>\u00a0or the Sunday Edition in Montreal.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I have a lot to say about Frey. I\u2019ll start with my twitterfeed as the talk unfolded:<\/p>\n