Oprah Grills Frey, Talese

by Jim Milliot and Charlotte Abbott, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 1/26/2006

James Frey and publishing standards were both in the hot seat this morning when Oprah Winfrey brought in the author and his editor Nan Talese to talk about the controversy swirling around Frey's A Million Little Pieces. Saying she felt "duped" by Frey, Winfrey said she had allowed her feelings about the book and Frey's strong relationship with her producers to cloud her judgment about the author when she called in to defend him on the Larry King Show earlier this month. "I made a mistake and left the impression that the truth does not matter, and I am deeply sorry about that," Winfrey said.

Frey acknowledged that the Smoking Gun story was "pretty accurate" and admitted that he only spent a few hours in jail, not months or weeks, and that he had changed substantial facts about some characters, such as that Lily had slit her wrists, not hanged herself, when she committed suicide.

Winfrey made it clear that she wasn't just upset with Frey, but with the publisher's support of Frey's depiction of the book as a true account of his life. Winfrey wondered why Frey's description of having a root canal without novocaine didn't provide a red flag to Talese about the truthfulness of the book. Winfrey also said one reason she was so taken with the book was "you can't believe that all of this happened to one person."

Talese explained that after she and colleagues read the book it was legally vetted and that because she believed in Frey the book was released as a memoir. Talese also stated that her colleagues “had no questions” when she passed the manuscript on to them, implying that none had come up over the nine months that the book wended its way through the editorial and copyediting process. But Winfrey wasn’t buying it.

With evident outrage, Winfrey told of how a Hazelden counselor came forward to challenge aspects of the story eight days after Winfrey announced in the fall that she was choosing Pieces for her club. Winfrey said she had then asked Doubleday if "it stood behind James's book as a work of nonfiction at the time, and they said absolutely." Winfrey also questioned how a publisher could send out a press release touting the book as a "brutally honest" look at addiction, when they "haven't checked it to be sure." To which Talese responded, "It's very sad for you. It's very sad for us."

Calling for change in the industry, Winfrey emphasized that publishers have a duty to consumers to distinguish fact from fiction. "I'm trusting you, the publisher, to categorize this book whereas fiction or autobiographical or memoir. I'm trusting you."