Larry King Freyed

Well, folks, here we go.  Larry King with James Frey.  Larry has already been on with Paula Zahn to pimp the interview.  He claimed that he liked the Frey book, though it was not really clear if he'd even read it.  He compared the style to Hemingway, said it was easy to read.  Hmmm.

Anyway, this will be my little attempt to live blog this interview.  "Ypsilati, go!"

[Update:  If you'd rather read the entire transcript instead of my "highlights" you can find it here.]

6:00pm PT:  We were first told this interview wouldn't be for the whole hour.  We were told wrong.  He's here for all of it.

6:01pm:  CNN report on the story to set things up.  Nothing we haven't read or heard already.

6:03:  Wait, there is a brief interview with the police officer that arrested Frey, and the Pieces start unraveling.

6:04: King gives a disclaimer that the Smoking Gun is part of the AOL/Time Warner company, yadda, yadda. Larry:  "What's your side, James?"  James:  "I wrote a memoir." 

6:05: "Not necessarily accurate to say I conned anyone." Only 18 pages are under dispute.  He acknowledges that things were embellished but not to the degree implied by the Smoking Gun.  "There's a great debate about memoir," according to Frey.  "They don't generally come under scrutiny like mine has."

6:06:  I have to say that Frey is very calm.  He does seem sincere.  I'm not a reader of facial expressions, but he doesn't seem to be trying to B.S. his way through this one. 

6:07: Frey claims that he told Oprah's producers that he did make changes in the book, for various reasons.  Explains a couple of these and the reasons for them.  "Essential truth of these remain."  He stands by the essential truth of the book.  "Nobody is disputing the fact that I was a drug addict and alcoholic."

6:08:  Hasn't spoken to Oprah.  She hasn't contacted him.  Her producers have been supportive.

6:13:  Larry confirms that Random House is denying reports that they are offering refunds.  Frey acknowledges that he did shop the book as a novel.  He thinks of the book as working in the tradition of Hemingway, Kerouac, etc.  "When they published their books, the genre of memoir didn't exist."  Larry reads some review snippets.  Frey was surprised by how positive the reviews were.

6:15:  Frey says that the controversial "three months in jail" is actually part of My Friend Leonard which contains a long disclaimer at the beginning.

6:16:  Hints, thanks to some King prodding, that drug blackouts may play a part in his ability to remember exactly what happened.

6:17:  Frey starts deconstructing the Smoking Gun article. He doesn't have any hard feelings toward TSG, says they were doing their job.

6:20:  Frey on the train wreck incident:  "A case where I changed identities to protect...I still think about it."  Claims it's another case of a minor incident that doesn't have a lot to do with the essential nature of the book is being picked apart.

6:21:  Larry asks if he acknowledged a criminal past.  Frey does a good imitation of Clinton on this one.  He answers the question without answering it.  "It's a book about getting better."

6:23: Larry:  Were you a bad guy?  Frey:  I was a flawed person. 

6:24:  Frey insists that he will never write another book about himself.  Has been an upsetting week.  Shocked by the furor. Thinks this is the most scrutinized memoir in history but that's what comes with selling a lot of copies and being part of Oprah {that sounds bad;  funny, but bad}

6:26:  Frey doesn't think people would believe the essential message of the book if he hadn't really lived the things he wrote about.

6:27:  "In the memoir genre, the writer usually takes liberties."  Talese is standing by him "absolutely." He hasn't started writing third book.  Says this episode will affect him but hopes readership will stick by him.

6:28:  Wouldn't change anything.  Would still submit this very manuscript.  Cliche alert number 212: "Can't change the past." Going to a break we're alerted that Mama Frey is going to join them later.

6:32:  Frey will write fiction.  He doesn't think it's fair to characterize AMLP as fiction.  Stands by it as memoir.

6:33:  Larry changes subject.  How did you get into drugs? 

6:34:  Knew the Smoking Gun was going to release a story, but didn't know the nature of the story.  "Journalist always go in to a story with a story."  Has a problem with the fact that a lot of what he told the Smoking Gun was off the record.  Frey does take responsibility for what he said, however.

6:35:  Larry: Will this episode cause you to fall back to drugs or alcohol.  Frey:  It's been a trying week.  Have been temptations but got through the week.

6:36:  First phone call.  A Frey-head.  Why did the Smoking Gun ignore the power of the book and instead report on all of this other stuff?  Frey doesn't know.  He does say that he has a lot of records--journals, notes, medical records, etc--that he used to write AMLP.  His mantra: subjective recreation of my own life.

6:37:  Frey claims he wasn't trying to "prove" anything by writing the book.  Hopes it helped people.  He talks lovingly of his Oprah experience {wonder why$$$}.

6:41:  Bassone clip talking about the train wreck incident. Frey refuses to comment.  He does worry that people will have trouble believing the contents of AMLP because of this, but he's always worried that people would have a problem believing it.

6:43: {Does Larry listen to his own interviews?}

6:43: Caller:  As recovering addict how inspired by your book should I be after this?  Frey:  The essential truth of the book remains.  I was an addict, etc.

6:44: Don't know if he'll use this in future writing. Friends have been supportive.  Publisher has been supportive.  Larry: When I see memoir I think fact.  I wrote a memoir. {hahaha!}  Frey: Some people will dispute this claim.  He brings up Jerzy Kosinski and the fact that he wrote about being in the Holocaust yet he wasn't there.  Larry:  "Kosinski killed himself." {Priceless.}

6:48: Here's Ma Frey.  They show the Oprah clip of her excitement when the book was announced as the book club pick.  Ma Frey recounts, tells how James set everything up but it was a complete surprise. 

6:49:   She's saddened by the fraud story.  Disappointed. She doesn't believe it, believes in James.  She details a phone call she got last night from a parole officer who uses James' book with parolees and it's making a huge difference.  She's disappointed in the Smoking Gun.  Proud of James.

6:50:  Ma Frey talks about the challenge of living through James' drug problems. 

6:51:  Frey:  Married now.  Wife is supportive.  Larry: Have you let your mother down?  Frey:  I've let my mother down many, many times.

6:53:  Larry:  Why so much violence associated with the drugs?  {Oh Larry.}  Ma doesn't worry about him going back to drugs. Thinks James is strong enough and committed so that this stuff won't affect his sobriety.  "We're stronger because of what happened."

6:57:  Ma shows off her medallion from James finishing rehab.  Reminds her of what she has been through.  Larry:  Did you know he could write.  Ma: Yes.  Larry:  What did you think of when you read it?  Ma:  It was very difficult to have to relive all of that.  Didn't care that hearts would be hanging out there.  Believed in James, believed in the book.

6:58:  James has a supportive brother.

6:58:  Last word:  Hopes the essential truth resonates.  It's a memoir.  Doesn't think it should be held up to the standards of a nonfiction book or newspaper article.

6:59:  OMG, OMG, ohmygod, it's Oprah.  Oprah says she didn't want to release a statement until James was given a chance to get his story out there.  Oprah says she recommends books based on the power of the written message.  She's disappointed by the controversy.  She relies on the publishers to categorize the books.  Picks up books that are called memoir, expects it to be a memoir.  But, the underlying message of Frey's book still resonates with her and will continue to resonate.  She says for all of the people who have read and were inspired, "Keep holding on."  The exaggerations don't matter to her. It's the fact that he was definitely an addict, came through it, and that's the message.

7:01:  Oprah will still recommend it.  She feels that this will open up a debate in publishing over exactly what is a memoir. Thinks the exaggerations are irrelevant.

7:03:  A gushing James thanks her.  He's extremely honored.

7:04: Oprah, Larry, James, and Ma sign off.  Larry has to apologize to Anderson Cooper for eating into AC360's time, but Anderson has to ask Larry what he thinks of the memoir genre.  Larry rambles about memory and the fact that he could see how facts might be blurred after time passes.  Larry believes that sales of the book are solidified by Oprah's appearance.  Could actually be further helped.

Wow, I'm beat.  Feel free to discuss, I need to ice my fingers.

Comments

[LTR]

Another hard-hitting Larry King interview. Frey made a genius move to go to King to discuss this scandal!

The only people I really fault are the readers who aren't critical enough of the genre of biography to realize that writers always reconstruct dialog when they write about it. With that in mind, we have to be a little cynical about the wy a subjective past is represented in a subjective report of that past.

[JodyTresidder]

So what did Frey snort in advance? Botox?
Ah well, that's how Larry keeps getting access - and why I watched even though I knew Frey would do the stone-faced, slightly wounded creep act.

Though - naturally - wished I could hiss in Larry's ear "ask him how EVERY single "embellishment" in his ghastly book strangely made him seem a rougher, tougher, badder guy and thus made his story more gripping?"

Funny how these "random" embellishments all serve Frey very nicely.

Thanks for the live blog. Hope the ice works!

[CAAF]

"OMG, OMG, ohmygod, it's Oprah."

Hee. Many thanks, Jeff, for putting this up. Am now intrigued by possible trend of moms accompanying all authors on their appearances to comment and defend. Sez Mrs. Moody, "Dale Peck is an SOB." etc.

[MG]

Thanks so much for the report, Jeff! Love your comments.

[TJ]

Agreed. Thanks, Jeff, for watching so I didn't have to. I'll bet Random House is kicking itself now for saying they'd give refunds on the book. If they'd held out for one more day, Oprah would have made it all better for them.

[Nancy]

Would MUCH rather read your comments than the actual transcript.

PS For some of us, the acronym DFW brings to mind initially a large metropolitan area and associated airport in Texas...

[TJ]

I'm trying to draw some parallel between Wallace and Dallas-Fort Worth's airport. I think it's best I stop right there. They're pretty cheap: airplanes = ideas. Lame.

[Pauly D]

All I kept thinking throughout the whole interview was, "Man, James Frey sure looks a lot like Ryan Reynolds but with a beard and receding hairline."

[Jean D.]

Unbelievable, the ignorance of the reading public. First of all, what do they expect when they buy a book just because Opra (Oprah?)--the TV entertainer-- tells them it's a great book. But more importantly, there have been hundreds of memoirs later disclosed to be inaccurate or downright untrue, many of them by individuals whose names are/were well known by the general public. What I'm suggesting is that THERE IS NO NEWS HERE. There is nothing new in this story except that Oprah and King are trying to save face. And then, to add insult to injury, Anderson Cooper repeats the whole darn boring business again, for another entire hour! So why didn't I switch channels? Because I was sitting here mesmerized by the idiocy of all this. Momentous things happened around the world today, and CNN carried this "story." To repeat: unbelievable.