Product Description

My Friend Leonard is the story of an extraordinary friendship formed in the most unlikely of circumstances. When James Frey first meets Leonard in the rehabilitation centre so powerfully described in A Million Little Pieces they are both recovering drug addicts. Despite their highly unreliable track records their shared grit and humour sparks a mutual admiration which quickly transforms into firm loyalty. Leonard himself is charismatic and contradictory; at once a magnetic father-figure and a shady mafia boss. When he leaves rehabilitation it is to return to this dubious yet prosperous life in the criminal underworld of Las Vegas. In contrast, when James leaves the centre his world seems set to implode. Unsure where to turn, James calls Leonard and he answers. Paradoxically, it is in Leonard's lawless underworld that James discovers the courage and humanity needed to rebuild his life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #315061 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

Review
'My Friend Leonard will go some way to cementing his reputation as one of the finest young writers around.' -- Irish Examiner 20050604 'My Friend Leonard is dangerously addictive ! this slick memoir is narrated in the present tense, which gives it verve and an aura of authenticity'. -- Tatler 20050501 'Picassos and promise, racketeering and respect ! a stark and moving tribute to a complicated but loyal goodfella' -- Independent on Sunday 20050501 'An extraordinary tale of life after prison with a dangerous, delightful friend' -- Big Issue 20050501 'He takes you inside his world of pain, and it's like a small, brightly lit cell ... Life, Frey tells us, is pretty disturbing and weird when you're out of your head. But try living it sober.' -- The Spectator 20050716 'A deeply affecting book ... read it, and you will appreciate the way Frey weathered a full-frontal assault from emotions he didn't know existed ... Vivid, splashy and mesmerising.' -- Independent 20050721 'When a book proves difficult to put down, you know you're on to a good thing' -- Irish News 20050721 'Everyone should get a copy -- it's brilliant' -- Jason Biggs, actor. Now 20051019 'It's a testament to the writer's talent! that I became instantly moved and involved from the first page.' -- The Crack 20060601 The idea of reading about the road to recovery of someone whose lifestyle I could neither condone nor understand didn't inspire me at all. WRONG!!! Within two pages all prejudice was forgotten and I immediately felt an empathy with the main character.' -- Jane Eyre, Leeds 20060601

Bret Easton Ellis on A MILLION LITTLE PIECES
‘A heartbreaking memoir … inspirational and essential’

Independent on Sunday
‘Picassos and promise, racketeering and respect … a stark and moving tribute to a complicated but loyal goodfella’

Customer Reviews

warmer and funnier than before but still a great read
i'm guessing most people will be coming to this book having read "a million pieces", frey's first memoir, and this book picks up where a million pieces left off with frey coming to the end of his prison sentence for his various drug and alcohol fueled activities.

but it would be wrong to assume that this is going to be more of the same. where a million pieces was a fiercely angry and often unpleasantly vivid account of frey's struggles with crack and alcohol, my friend leonard takes a lighter tone as it deals with the subjects of friendship and rebuilding and it's certainly no worse for the change of emphasis.

frey still has a great turn of phrase, a enormously readable style and critically, a story to tell. as the title suggests, at the centre of the book are his friendship with fellow addict and west coast mob boss leonard who he met in rehab, but it also takes in frey's relationship with his girlfriend from rehab lily, and his attempts to assemble some sort of adult life following a decade of alcohol and drug abuse that started in his teens.

one thing that concerned me a little about this book as i started reading was that the last couple of pages of a million little pieces summarise what happens to most of the characters frey meets in rehab, leonard and, in particular, lilly included. yet ultimately that does not massively detract from what happens in this book. this is a book not about what finally happens but about how everyone gets to where they end up, and despite knowing elements of the ending it's none the less powerful - as with great newspaper journalism the headline only whets your appetite for the full story.

through the book, frey tells his and his friends' stories with the same humour, affection and honesty that ran through his first book and it has the same compelling, readable quality. where it lacks the shock value, the warmth more than compensates.

for anyone who hasn't read a million little pieces, go read that first and then come back... you won't regret buying both.

After all is said and done
James Frey is a controversial figure. His first book, a Million Little Pieces, was quietly received before word of mouth snowballed sales into thousands. The crescendo was reached by the book appearing as part of Oprah's `book club'. Millions read Frey's story of reaching rock bottom, scrabbling and scratching in the dirt before a raw, real redemption. And then success inevitably brought suspicion. Journalists took a cynical comb to the story, and decided that James Frey was a liar. His story didn't stack up. His sufferings were faked, his pains embellished and his difficulties dreamt. Now in addition to being a drug addicted, alcoholic criminal he was a lying, drug addicted, alcoholic criminal. Or worse still, he was just a liar. And for the author of a work of biographical non-fiction that is a problem.

I loved a Million Little Pieces. I loved how someone completely messed up could produce a work of such harrowing, yet moving beauty. I loved the style, how the prose was as rough and jagged and real as the author. I loved how even someone who had messed up their lives really badly could be saved. For someone suffering from his own demons it was a message I needed and absorbed. So when it seemed that the story was fake it ruined the message. The raw truth, the honesty and plunging lows had made me love the book. The revelation that it was fiction made me think twice. And so I had stayed away from My Friend Leonard, the follow up to a Million Little Pieces. It was over a year after its release before I would come to read it.

I realised that Frey's dishonesty was going to be an issue from the book by juxtaposing the `disclaimer' on the first few pages with the opening line. In the disclaimer Frey explains that the book is a mixture of fiction and non-fiction, and in particular that "I did not spend 90 days in jail and Porterhouse is a fictional character." This is then followed by Chapter 1. "On my first day in jail, a three hundred pound man named Porterhouse hit me in the back of the head with a metal tray." But I decided to read on.

And now I am glad I did. Because not only is My Friend Leonard a fine book, it enabled me to appreciate his original, and so-far best work, without thinking the worst of the author.

The book covers the period of Frey's life from leaving the rehabilitation centre, through prison and over the following years as he slowly rebuilds a seemingly irreparable life. We last saw Frey stabilising at the rehab centre, but this was stabilisation from a desperate position. Over the course of My Friend Leonard we see how Frey manages to overcome the manifest temptations to return to his former life of addiction, and forges a new life. It is a book that shows the importance of friendship, the lengths people can go to help others, and just how resilient man can be even when faced with the most impossible tragedies and difficulties.

*!^"*££^$*$*($(%)
After reading the final page of "A Million Little Pieces" I thought, how is he going to top that?! After starting to read "My Friend Loenard" and becoming addicted to James & his world all over again, it was obvious this book was going to be another WOW read!

I found this book even more compelling and addictive and lovable than his first. The twists it takes are shocking, yet you feel a sympathy and love for the characters still.

I have enjoyed my journey through James' world and I thank him for allowing me in.

There is however one disappointment with this book. In the final pages of "A Million Little Pieces" we learn about what happens after and that spoils it a little when reading "My Friend Leonard" as you know what's going to happen. However, the way in which James writes, makes up for this disappointment.

When's the third?!?!?!?!?