A Million Little Lies [artistic fraud]

[Cog Sinister]

And another bump (from a lurker at that).

I read A Million Little Pieces around about Oprah time.  It had been out for a while by then but the book club appearance (for obvious reasons) seemed to intensify the fuss around it.

I thought it was awful, really dire, and as a result started to doubt myself for a while.  Ended up combing the net, reading all the reviews hailing it as a masterpiece and wondering just what the hell these people were seeing, and what the hell I was missing.  At the time I wasn't remotely interested in the authenticity angle.  I just thought it was bad writing.

That said, my online mini-quest wasn't completely in vain.  It lead me to perhaps the finest book review ever written.

http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=6948&IBLOCK_ID=35&PAGE=1

Dolan also wrote a review of the Frey affair when the truth came out.

http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=8011&IBLOCK_ID=35

And another piece on the wider concept of literary fraudsters.

http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=19038&IBLOCK_ID=35

So while I'll happily never read a book by Frey again his work did lead me to Dolan.  I wonder if I should thank him.