205. Title &
Author: My Friend Leonard by
James Frey (357 pages)
Genre: Nonfiction— Memoir
Completed: 30 November 2011
Summary & Review:
Picking up where his first memoir,
A Million Little Pieces, leaves off,
Frey finds himself in rehab trying to put his shattered life back together.
Through the course of his stay, he becomes close friends with a middle aged man
named Leonard, a man with ties to a certain Italian “business organization,”
who encourages him to make his life right, starting by serving his debt to
society. Frey follows his advice and after going to prison, begins his new
sober life in Chicago. Throughout the ups and downs of a recovering addict’s struggles,
Leonard is always there with a good meal, a smile, and an infectious zest for
life.
I am
sure most people are familiar with Frey and the controversy surrounding his memoir
A Million Little Pieces. Whether or
not parts of this book were made up as well, doesn’t really matter to me. This was a
book about friendship, and how important it is to have a friend you can count
on when you need them.
Frey
has a very distinctive style of prose in this book. It is relentless and driving,
usually lacking the proper punctuation that allows the reader to pause, and it
is full of repetitive statements and circular passages. While this style
definitely doesn’t convey the beauty of Dickens or the talent of Dostoevsky, it
does bring a certain amount of earnestness and power to a very sad story.
Rating: 6.5
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