Weekend Review: Sidewalk Slips, Neil Strauss, James Frey
On Friday I signed up to take the Bar Exam in the great state of Illinois.
If you plan on robbing any Chicago convenience stores or slipping on any Chicago (THERE, SANDY!!!) sidewalks, please wait at least nine months…at which point I will have taken and hopefully passed the Bar and MPRE exams.
On Saturday I went to Neil Strauss’s book reading.
Strauss wrote THE GAME: PENETRATING THE SECRET SOCIETY OF PICKUP ARTISTS, which recounts how the author rose to fame within the PUA (pickup artist) community and “sarged” (scored) some of the most beautiful women in southern California.
After the reading, I sarged Strauss’s mom.
Well, sort of. She and I talked for about an hour. I didn’t get her phone number…or her e-mail, but she did take mine and she said that she’d send me a message. We shall see.
Kidding aside, she and her husband were some of the cooler people I’ve met in Chicago.
On Sunday I got to work on my final law school paper. It’s about the James Frey scandal and the lawsuit that followed.
Basically, a bunch of MILLION LITTLE PIECES readers got together and sued Frey’s publisher, Random House for fraud. The case settled for a couple million dollars.
What do you think? Did Random House commit fraud in publishing a memoir that contained fabrications and advertising the book as “brutally honest”?
Technorati Tags: james frey, james fray, million little pieces, niel strauss, neil strauss, neil straus, the game, pickup, pick up artist, PUA, law school blog, lawschoolblogger, lawschoolblogger.com, lawyer boy, lawyer, boy, rick lax, law, law school, legal, education, blog, writing, class, school
Posted in General | 
Subscribe to this feed
March 31st, 2008 at 11:50 am
Wow, Strauss looks at least 75% similar to the illustrations of him in THE GAME…although in this picture you also look at least 75% similar to the same illustrations.
I don’t believe that Random House or Frey ever claimed that the book was 100% factual, and calling something “brutally honest” might refer to the fact that the story portrays a side of drug addiction that we hardly ever see in a “brutally honest” way, not pulling any punches…therefore, not guilty.
If they did claim that the events were completely true, then I believe they did commit fraud.
More importantly, I feel very smart for having read both books you referred to in this post, despite the fact that they are both about sex and drugs.
March 31st, 2008 at 2:13 pm
What were their damages? The cost of the book?
March 31st, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Are those candy “sprinkles” on his hand?? That’s why it was such a great cover. I want some of those…
I read the book, and I am glad I did. It “felt” real, gave excellent information and, as I read it I believed it was “based on a true story” and nothing more. I was also aware of a legal issue as well during the time I read it although not the details of the case.
My thoughts are not legal conclusions (obviously).. so I don’t know if my comment counts for anything or not.
I thought the book was terrific, and if he was there in that rehab place 3 days, instead of 3 weeks I *personally* don’t care, because I gained the same out of it either way. Admittedly, I don’t think he could have formed the same relationships described in the book in 3 days time.
I’m with your previous reader, anna, who asked what the damages are.. Who got hurt by this?
Maybe some of the damaged parties will step forward on your blog to tell us.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:20 pm
now i’m thinking out loud.
Is there a legal difference between a “history” book and a “memoir”?
I don’t think I want people to feel they can embellish history. Plenty of people try to do that already in order to alter others’ thoughts, emotions and the like. So if Frey’s book is nonfiction, and if nonfiction is all one lump thing, then I’m not for the slight changes just to make a better story.
If there IS a difference, however, let me know.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:51 pm
I can tell you exactly what damages were, because I was one of the aforementioned plaintiffs. I joined the lawsuit seeking reimbursement for the cost of a shitty book, as well as the emotional damages I suffered from finding out that the swill I had just wasted a week reading was a poorly spun web of lies.
And counselor Ryan, you should feel 75% embarrassed for feeling smart for reading two of the most widely distributed novels of the last decade.
April 1st, 2008 at 3:47 pm
The small college in Ohio where people went to get fucked up for four years is where I did my undergrad. His “running over a cop” incident was actually hitting a bike rack outside The Villa, one of two bars in that town. BADASS.
I blame Frey’s publisher more than I blame him. He appropriately shopped it to publishers as fiction. She (I forget her name) labeled it a memoir. And, moreover, I don’t see how the classification of a largely fictitious book as a memoir is fraudulent. The memoir is a hybrid b/t an autobiography and fiction, it’s admitting that your memory is fuzzy and you’re too lazy to check facts & dates.
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:47 am
Doesn’t the misrepresentation have to be intentional for it to be fraud?