What do you know about James Frey?

Or what do you think you know about James Frey?

I’m guessing it’s not nothing. Everyone has an opinion! When I first spotted 'A Million Little Pieces' on my wife’s bookshelf when we were moving in together I was like “Oh? Really? That book? The Oprah guy?”

And she was like “Have you read it?”

And I was like “No, no idea what it’s even about. Just that it’s not real or whatever.”

She looked at me with disappointed eyes. Understandably so! I hadn’t bothered to go below the surface. To read about it on my own. I had just soaked in some distant fumes off the story.

“Read it,” she said, and pushed the book into my hands.

That night I opened 'A Million Little Pieces' and was completely pulled into this pulsing, frenetic, endlessly climactic story of addiction, growth, and finding yourself. The book shook me. It was a masterpiece. I couldn’t believe it existed. I almost felt anger towards the Oprah saga because it headfaked me into thinking I knew what the book was about… when I couldn’t have been more off. I went deeper into James Frey’s catalogue and found myself similarly seduced by books like 'Bright Shiny Morning' and 'Katerina,' and am looking forward to Frey's new novel, 'Next To Heaven,' which is coming out in June 2025.

His stories have a pace and staccato to them that’s perfect for distracted brains like mine. He doesn’t mince words, he doesn’t shy away, and his characters always punch you in the gut.

In this classic chapter of 3 Books. I sat down with James with a lot of questions and I loved our discussions around fatherhood and living an intentional life. We talk about teaching children to read, the importance of secular bibles, why (and how) we can slowly stop comparing ourselves to others, what getting drunk really means, and much, much more...

Let's flip the page back to Chapter 25 now...

Episode 280: Mastering Narratives with Sports Illustrated Writer Brian Burnsed