{"id":451,"date":"2008-05-20T17:45:33","date_gmt":"2008-05-21T00:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2008\/05\/451\/"},"modified":"2008-05-20T19:49:49","modified_gmt":"2008-05-21T02:49:49","slug":"451","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2008\/05\/20\/451\/","title":{"rendered":"LA Times: James Frey Rises From The Ashes"},"content":{"rendered":"

from the Los Angeles Times<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

James Frey rises from the ashes<\/span><\/p>\n

\"James<\/p>\n

Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times<\/p>\n

Author James Frey is promoting the release of his latest novel “Bright, Shiny Morning,” a book about life in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

He’s trying to step clear of ‘A Million Little Pieces’ as he publicizes his novel.<\/p>\n

By Scott Timberg, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
\nMay 20, 2008<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

JAMES FREY was back in his old neighborhood, strolling happily along the Venice boardwalk, enjoying a sunny day in a T-shirt and aviator shades as he passed tattoo shops and a man who was selling what he claimed to be “philosophy.” It doesn’t get any better than this, Frey’s body language seemed to say.<\/p>\n

“This<\/em>,” Frey, 38, said. “This doesn’t exist in New York. This weather — it’s like this in Venice all year. Never that hot here because of the ocean. I mean, dude, every day — all year.”<\/p>\n

That’s when he bumped into an old neighbor, who still lives across from the house where Frey wrote the 2003 book, “A Million Little Pieces.”<\/p>\n

“Jesus! I thought you won the Nobel Prize for literature!” shouted Marvin Klotz, a retired English professor, hanging out on a bench with some friends. He’d seen all the recent press. “Newsweek! Time! Vanity Fair!”<\/p>\n

“Washington Post, I got a good one,” said Frey, who talks through his nose with a bored-guy flatness.<\/p>\n

Frey could have been just another local boy made good. Then Klotz, a dead ringer for Jerry Garcia and Albert Einstein, introduced the writer to another friend as “the disgraced James Frey!”<\/p>\n

“The most notorious author in America,” Frey offered, smiling his crooked smile.<\/p>\n

They all cracked up, laughing in the seaside sun.<\/p>\n

There was a time, not too long ago, when Frey’s travails were no laughing matter. “A Million Little Pieces” became a critical hit and a huge bestseller. Bret Easton Ellis called it “a heartbreaking memoir defined by its youthful tone and poetic honesty”; Pat Conroy dubbed it “The ‘War and Peace’ of addiction.”<\/p>\n

[\u00a0click to continue reading article at LATimes.com<\/a>\u00a0]<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from the Los Angeles Times James Frey rises from the ashes Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times Author James Frey is promoting the release of his latest novel “Bright, Shiny Morning,” a book about life in Los Angeles. He’s trying to step clear of ‘A Million Little Pieces’ as he publicizes his novel. By Scott […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conversation-information"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451","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\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}