I couldn't help it. I was compelled to tune in to see James Frey on Larry King Live last night. Actually, I missed the original showing as I was driving back from a meeting, but I caught it on the 11:00 p.m. replay and was highly entertained. A few thoughts:

1) Was Frey sedated before his appearance or is he still feeling the impact of all the drug and alcohol abuse? Either way, his overly calm demeanor and inability to express any real emotion was creeping me out.

2) How embarrassed was he having his mom sitting next to him and defending his actions? I know if I had been on Larry King Live to defend myself and my mother was sitting next to me, I would have been incredibly embarrassed. I probably would have been in a lot of pain too as I am 99.9% positive that Carol would have me face down on the desk, apologizing to Larry, Oprah, and readers across the world as she twisted my ear. For an old woman she is surprisingly strong.

3) Was anyone really surprised that Oprah supported him? If he goes down so does part of her "reader advisory" street cred. Which reminds. I was talking about this situation with one of my co-workers yesterday, and she wanted to know when Oprah was going to go on Larry King Live (or any show) and justify her ability to recommend a book. I know that she said that she bases her recommendations on her connection with the written word, but I believe the world deserves a better explanation than that. After all, a recommendation from Oprah means a lot more than a recommendation from me, the Smart Bitches, Super Librarian, Nancy Pearl, or whoever (not that I would class myself in the same category as these people -- they are way cooler). She has a power that a librarian can only dream of having, and as the world of Spiderman has taught me, with great power comes great responsibility.

4) Favorite Quotation #1: "Memoir -- the word literally means 'my story.' A memoir is a subjective retelling of events." Thank you for the definition Mr. Frey. I've got one for you. Subjective: modified or affected by personal views, experience, or background (taken from Merriam-Webster Online) . Please notice that the word fabricated is not used anywhere in the definition.

5) Favorite Quotation #2: "A memoir is within the genre of nonfiction. I don't think it's necessarily appropriate to say I've conned anyone. You know, the book is 432 pages long. The total page count of disputed events is 18, which is less than 5 percent of the total book. That falls comfortably within the realm of what's appropriate for a memoir." Seriously? You want to boil genre classification down to a mathematical equivalent? Can I do the same thing with all my non-fiction titles? I think Frey managed to turn my off of reading a biography, autobiography, or memoir ever again. While I am willing to accept the recreation of conversations that are more than likely not 100% accurate, the creation/fabrication of entire events to make yourself look better (or in Frey's case more like a badass) is sickening to me as a reader.

6) Best moment of the night: Frey did seem to come to life late in the show when he pointed to other authors who have experienced that same claims as him, namely Jerzy Kosinski who fell under heavy scrutiny when The Painted Bird was published (people making accusations that Kosinski had not experienced the Holocaust). Without missing beat Larry said, "And then he killed himself." Tee-hee.

I'm done. No more ranting from me. Promise. :-)

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