The Knuckleheads of the Day award

Today's winners are author James Frey and his publisher, Dobuleday. Mr. Frey became a bestselling author for his book, "A million little pieces." The book was once selected by Oprah Winfrey for her television book club. The book passed itself off as a personal memoir. Now its being learned the book is more a work of fiction.

Police reports, court records, interviews with law enforcement personnel, and other sources have put the lie to many key sections of Frey book. The 36-year-old author, these documents and interviews show, wholly fabricated or wildly embellished details of his purported criminal career, jail terms, and status as an outlaw wanted in three states.

In additon to these rap sheet creations, Frey also invented a role for himself in a deadly train accident that cost the lives of two female high school students. In what may be his book most crass flight from reality, Frey remarkably appropriates and manipulates details of the incident so he can falsely portray himself as the tragedy's third victim.

Frey appears to fictionalalized his past to propel and sweeten the book already melodramatic narrative and help convince readers of his malevolence. . But he has demonstrably fabricated key parts of the book, which could and probably should cause a discerning reader to wonder what is true in Million Little Pieces and its sequel, My Friend Leonard.

The NY Times and US Today had lengthy articles on Mr. Frey yesterday. I love this quote from Frey at the end of the Times article.

In an interview with The Times last month, Mr. Frey said that he originally envisioned "A Million Little Pieces" not as a memoir but as a novel. "We were in discussions after we sold it as to whether to publish it as fiction or as nonfiction," he said.

bizarretally bizarrre. Whether a book is fiction or non-fiction should be clear. That's why I put blame at the feet of Doubleday. They sold this book as non-fiction.

Michelle Malkin and Bizzy Blog take Oprah to task for publicizing this book instead of asking hard questions. I think Oprah a serjudgmentr in judgement, something we all do. Including bloggers. She doesn't deserve a knucklehead award.

For perpertrating a literary fraud, Author James Frey and his publisher Doubleday are today's Knuckleheads of the day.

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