Assessing the damage done by Frey’s lies

THANK you, Tim Rutten, for your piece “Oprah Exacts Her Pound of Flesh” [Jan. 28], with which I wholeheartedly agree. There is far more to this story than the discovery of a writer deceiving his readers by embellishing the truth to sell a so-called memoir.

The dangerously ill-conceived notion that drug and alcohol addiction can be healed by willpower alone, which James Frey promotes in “A Million Little Pieces,” has the potential to further damage the millions who struggle with this disease. Frey’s childish, self-centered response to Winfrey’s confrontation was that he is “being a better person,” had learned from his mistakes and wouldn’t repeat them. To me, this only confirmed what I already knew: that Frey hasn’t a clue about either his subject matter or the seriousness of his immoral act.

ELIZABETH LARROQUETTE

Santa Monica

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THE guy altered the details. So what? How does this affect anyone? He made the book more readable. Are addicts all over the world now going to stop “holding on” because Frey stretched the truth? Does he still get points for those who continue to keep the faith?

Look, it’s no secret Frey shopped the manuscript as fiction. If the reports are true, he was turned down by 17 publishers. Then [publisher] Nan Talese entered the picture. If anyone should be scrutinized, it’s her.

Just think: If they had added the words, “some of the events have been altered to protect identities,” Oprah’s evisceration of Frey would never have happened.

JON CROWLEY

Sherman Oaks