The unfortunate spread of James Frey

On Saturday, the French Consulate, with assistance from UCLA's department of French and Francophone studies, presented a day of literature from France and Los Angeles. The events, which were either in English or in French with English translation, were nevertheless packed full of French expatriates -- there are more than 30,000 in Los Angeles. The star of the show was onetime memoirist James Frey.

Other American authors who participated, such as Steve Erickson, acclaimed author of 10 books, and Richard Lange, a 2009 Guggenheim Fellow, are both published in France. But as French writer Jean Rolin noted, it's Frey who has caught the attention of French readers, particularly teenagers. Moderator Olivier Barrot, a well-known French literary critic, introduced Frey's most recent book, "Bright Shiny Morning," as being like John Dos Passos' work in ambition and scope.

This is hardly the reception the novel received in Los Angeles. "'Bright Shiny Morning' is an execrable novel," wrote Times book editor David L. Ulin, "a literary train wreck without even the good grace to be entertaining."

The book, which interweaves stories of several Angelenos -- an actor with a secret, a Latina maid, a homeless drunk, two young Midwesterners who've stolen money from a motorcycle gang -- includes short encyclopedia-like interludes with facts about the city. "One thing I should say about all that historical, statistical and demographic information is it's not all true," Frey said on his panel Saturday. "Some of it I just made up." The audience laughed loudly. "I'm very well known for making ... up," Frey continued. "I do it brazenly, and without apology, and I'm going to keep doing it."

That, of course, is also not all true. Frey, whose memoir, "A Million Little Pieces," turned out to be more than a little fictionalized, found himself on Oprah's couch explaining for his misrepresentation.

Misrepresenting one's own history is one thing; misrepresenting a whole city is another matter. Ulin's review explains:

Frey seems to know little about Los Angeles and to have no interest in it as a real place where people wrestle with actual life. There are obligatory riffs on freeways and natural disasters and a chapter on visual artists that lists "the highest price ever paid for a piece of their work in a public auction." There are also occasional installments of "Fun Facts" about the city, as if to give the illusion of a certain depth....

How do we reckon with a novel in which the desire to become an actress is treated as original and organic, in which the only Mexican American character is a maid?

How do we reckon with a book in which the city is flat and lifeless as a stage set, in which Frey uses broad generalizations ("Thirty-thousand Persians fleeing the rule of the ayatollahs. One-hundred and twenty-five thousand Armenians escaping Turkish genocide. Forty-thousand Laotians avoiding minefields. Seventy-five thousand Thais none in Bangkok sex shows.") to try to animate what his imagination cannot?

Yes, this is Los Angeles, in the way a cheap Hollywood movie is Los Angeles: superficial, a collection of loose impressions that don't add up.

In France, "Bright Shiny Morning" was published with the title "L.A. Story." More than simply being a lousy book that has found an enthusiastic foreign audience, it's one that purports to tell the story of Los Angeles.

"I wanted to write a book about L.A. that wasn't really about crime, and that wasn't really about Hollywood, but that was about the city that I loved, and that I lived in for a long time, and that I thought deserved serious literary treatment," Frey said Saturday.

Such a book is overdue only if you don't count the work of Raymond Chandler, Ray Bradbury, Nathaniel West, Michael Connelly, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James M. Cain, James Ellroy, Carolyn See, Wanda Coleman, Walter Mosley, Pico Iyer, Joan Didion and the many, many other authors who've given Los Angeles "serious literary treatment."

"I'm pretentious enough to think that's what I tried to do," Frey said. "I tried to write a great book about what I consider a great American city." I only hope Frey hasn't convinced the readers of France that his shallow, stereotypical version of L.A. is the truth.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: James Frey, with microphone, speaking on a panel organized by the French Consulate on May 15. Credit: Carolyn Kellogg

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Comments

[Chris Rice]

You left a wonderful LA writer out of your list---John Rechy.

[Elian Gonzalez]

Are we still flogging him for his alleged crime as tried on television by the ever self-righteous Oprah Winfrey? Is there an extra dose of invective that is, by law, supposed to be directed against him that he is a "bad" writer, no matter what?

[markus Edwards]

Who is your quote from at the very end of the article when you rip him? You don't say... bad writing. worse than Frey... but hey, you work for the Times.

[markus Edwards]

nevermind... it's your opinion... thought it was part of the quote.

[Nathan]

Yes, this guy is lame and pretentious. I'm not of the school of literary criticism that says you can't ever say that someone's work stinks.

Some of these literary circles surround a pile of manure and revel in the nuances of its stench. It is refreshing when someone has enough sense to call it what it is - a turd.

[Dan]

Love his books. You write the L.A. Times. I can't imagine that's a badge of honor. Have you read what you guys write lately?

[Mike]

Maybe from their vantage point the French are able to see something that Oprah watchers are too emotionally bound up in to dispassionately judge.

The idea that a book's value hinges on the factual accuracy and balance of its description of its locale is novel, and not generally applied to literature. And in the end, it comes down to different viewpoints and opinions.

[John McCready]

The fact that the LA Times reviewer had no appreciation of "Bright Shiny Morning", shows he has no business reviewing books, should NOT live in L.A., and is not INTELLIGENT ENOUGH to understand James Frey's work of "fiction" on L.A.! For a work of "fiction", I would argue that EVERY CHARACTER chronicled in that book ACTUALLY HAS a REALISTIC PERSONA somewhere in L.A. If "A Million Little Pieces" had more "fiction then fact", (and I do NOT think it did!), then I would argue that "Bright Shiny Morning" was more "realistic" then fictional! Too bad an L.A. Times book reviewer can't see or understand that!

[Robbi]

I thought Bright Shiny Morning was an excellent work of fiction! I still find myself thinking about the characters over a year later.

The literary establishment is still too bitter about the "memoir" that was A Million Little Pieces to even give BSM a fair review.

Get over it.

[yoga2010]

Add A. L. Haskett's Duncan Delaney and the Cadillac of Doom to the list of good books about Los Angeles.

[DJ Blass]

What do you expect from France? This is a country where the complete filmography of comedian Jerry Lewis is high art.

[Mark York]

Well, what else could one expect from a writer with such a personal history of deception? Apparently the New York publishing establishment has no problem with deception, stereotypes and shallow caricatures masquerading as modern literature. They paid good money for it. Pity, that.

[Amanda]

I couldn't agree with you more, Ms. Kellogg. Frey took every stereotypical image you can conjure up for LA–from the forlorn and ill treated Mexican-American maid to the gay starletts to the Venice beach homeless–and down right abused the cliche. While I have read the entire catalog of Frey's work, I still don't see why this man was so heavily criticized by the media. To be honest, his work didn't deserve that much critical analysis. Entertainment, yes, absolutely. High literature? Certainly not.

[Joel]

Frey isn't worth the bandwidth used to electronically display his name. A poor excuse for a writer and, yes, a liar. I bought "A Million Little Pieces" when it first came out and, if I'd been able to, I would have thrown the book in his face, when I found out about his lies, rather than where I did put it. Which was in the trash. It's where his works belong. Peace

[Phil]

I have to say that Frey is an imaginative and descriptive writer, loved the Fiction, 'A Million Little Pieces.' However, I whole heartedly agree, that his most recent work falls far short of capturing the reality and complexity of actual people living in Los Angeles, too many stereotypes.

[Kresling]

The author of the blog doesn't appear to have read Frey's new book. She also began her recent blog about "Mrs. Dalloway" by explaining that she hadn't gotten around to reading it. Frey's book may not represent L.A. very well, but an L.A. book blog by a person who can't be bothered to read the authors it critiques sums up L.A. fairly well.

[A. Miller]

Don't forget Pynchon!

[Marsha Keeffer]

Joel gets it right - Frey is a colossal waste of time.

[kim1313]

I thought Miss Kellogg was right on.

[Eric]

The one hilarious thing about her critique is when she points out all the great LA writers Frey should reference. The man very clarly said he didn't want to write about Hollywood or crime in LA, and that hewanted to tell stories about other things and places in LA. Literally every one of the writers Kellogg references tell Hollywood and crime stories, exactly what he said he didn't want to do. Clearly a journalist blinded by her paper's agenda (see David Ulin, a man who was written several awful books about LA and tears apart anyone who does it better ). The LA Times should be ashamed to publish these hacks.

[Jennifer Perry]

Oh, thank you Carolyn Kellogg. Thank you.