Letters to the Editor
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Junky see, Junky do
I finished reading "Pieces" a week or two before the controversy about it became public. It was given to me as a gift during the holidays. I don't have anything against Oprah, but I don't watch her show, and hadn't heard of the book until my friend gave it to me.
What didn't ring true for me about "Pieces" was how Frey depicted himself as the beloved Superhero of the Rehab Clinic. Everyone who met him instantly became his friend and ally. Well, not everyone. He did have a couple of enemies in rehab, but they were quickly dispatched by SuperFrey and His Posse.
The employee who drives Frey to the dentist on his first day in rehab gives Frey, literally, the coat off his back? Frey's therapist cuts him a ton of slack, even after Frey rejects the sacrosanct Twelve Steps? Not bloody likely. Social workers learn, from training and experience, not to trust addicts, because 100% of junkies will try to con you 100% of the time.
Frey's girlfriend, Lilly, who has been brutally abused and exploited by men her entire life, takes one look at Frey and decides that he's her Knight In Shining Armor? Frey wishes.
The Federal Judge and The Mob Boss team up to save Frey from doing hard time in stir?
Whatever.
This book is the con-job story of a junky's rehab con job. Which makes it a con job within a con job. Reading it was a waste of time.