Reading Reflection #4

Book: A Million Little Pieces
By: James Frey
Pages Read: 181 - 346

I am finally being drawn into this memoir of James Frey. As I get farther into the story I find it difficult to put the book down! It could be due to that I was in Brandon and had lots of free time to read.... Anyways, as I read I was introduced to this mystery girl, James' parents, Lilly, Leonard, and James himself more thoroughly than before. I now understand the relationship between the mystery girl and James. The relationships between James' peers (Lilly, Leonard, etc) are becoming a safety net of James. Finally James is learning through his parents the extent of where his addictions potentially came from.

This book has given me an insight of what an addict goes through. I have also learnt the side of a family member who lives with an addict. As I read I am not left to make assumptions, because everything is explained well. For example, how does the facility describe an addiction. On page 290 at the end of the first paragraph Sophie, a family program leader, says "The addict always wants and always needs and that want and that need is always satisfied. The inability to control and the lack of choice is but a symptom of the disease." The facility says that an addiction is considered a disease. Sophie also explains that after research "As with most diseases the belief is that the cause is genetic" she says in the last paragraph of page 289. Personally, I can believe that an addiction can be passed on through genetics, but James thinks otherwise.


My prediction from my reading reflection #2 was right. James did not leave the facility and will not until he feels confident that he can stay sober. I will finish this reading reflection off with a moment in the book that made me want to skip over, because I felt so nauseous. James was pulling off his toe nail and due to the description I could barely finish those two pages. Top of page 267 James writes "I pull and the nail breaks further. It tears the skin and that holds it in place, severs the veins that feed it. Blood starts to flow." This book is well written, maybe a little too well.