One of the most bizarre refund stories is about a million little pieces book, a memoir, written by James Frey that explored the world of a drug addict through detox and rehabilitation. The novel sparked much controversy and readers can still write in to receive a refund for purchasing the book.

Hitting shelves in 2003, a million little pieces book received wide acclaim and was featured on the Oprah Winfrey show. Oprah decided to choose the book as part of Oprah’s Book Club and it became a best selling non-fiction book. The book made many recovering addicts and addicts have faith that they too could stay sober and healthy as James Frey had.

The story starts with James Frey’s recollection of being on an airplane, bloodied and bruised, on his way to rehab. 23 years old, he had been addicted to alcohol for ten years and crack for three years. He quickly decides he will not rely on the Twelve Steps program to stay sober, but knows he will have to take responsibility for his actions and his choices. We are told in graphic detail of his past with drugs and how he finds out his addictive tendencies may have stemmed from pain from chronic earaches as a toddler.

The Smoking Gun published an article about how a million little pieces book was not all true and how James Frey conned Oprah when he was on her show. Much controversy erupted and Oprah Winfrey had James Frey back on her show in 2006. She asked him a series of questions about the events in the book and why he lied. James Frey replied by saying that he wrote a lot of experiences as he remember them and was not if it would’ve been better to include a disclaimer or write the events in a different way. Oprah interviewed the publisher who said a lot of what happened in the book wasn’t impossible and the details that were true or untrue still had the same effect when reading it.

The publishers stood by the book, saying that that overall message was more important than the details. Random House set was prepared to pay $2.35 million dollars in lawsuits, but when all was said and done, only 1,729 people requested refunds for a million little pieces book. James Frey has written, My Friend Leonard and Bright Shiny Morning in addition to his a million little pieces book.

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