I found david cross' adaptation quite entertaining:

http://www.bobanddavid.com/david.asp?artID=191

I did not read it. It is too painful of a topic for me. I know that, for myself, if he would have said it was loosely based upon real events it would have felt better. The book was apparently well written, people found it engaging and many found it inspirational. It would have been well received then without the "elaborations". He misled the public. People who read the book and reacted (thoughts, feelings, emotions... pain, tears, anger...) they then feel betrayed. It is about the fact that they gave genuine in response to "elaborations".

I read it and I too could not seem to put the book down. I think it was the way it was written, I've never seen a book written like that before. I didn't know what to think when I started hearing people accusing him of embelishing details. But I think I do understand. I mean, he was recovering from a drug addiction, of course some areas are going to be a bit hazy, and I'm sure if you were in his position trying to make a great selling book, you might jazz it up a little too. All I really know is that I really enjoyed it, whether it was fiction or non-fiction, it was still great!

If anyone saw the Oprah special with him, it was more than embellishing... I am very lenient with creative licence and people and their mistakes in general BUT that man out and out lied and disrespected both Oprah and the audience with his audacity.

The lies weren't of an "embellished sort." Half of the stuff didn't even exist! I think he even said that the woman he loved in the book either didn't exist or didn't die - one of the two is what I "remember." Then again maybe not!

I was disgusted moreso by this man in person than by anything he could have chosen to write. It was one of those times a human puts a pockmark on the human race.

: (

I got the book last year for Christmas, and I thought it was really good. I was so disappointed when he came out and said most of it was made up or exaggerated. I think I was more upset because of the fact that he would be willing to lie to so many people just to be famous. I also felt as though the book wasn't as good anymore. If you're going to read it, think of it as a work of fiction and you'll enjoy it a lot more.

Writers like this are a pissoff because they are selling their wet dreams as slice of reality and there's a big difference: Roddy Doyle did it, Farley Mowatt has done it, Dan Brown did it in an ass-backwards way... it's not THAT uncommon. And it gets a lot worse when they make movies of this stuff and people who don't read anything very much think it's real and start acting bananas.

A creation of the human imagination that is unafraid to stand as that is wonderful, and can be absolutely heroic.

Muddling it all up diminishes the value of both imaginative creation and the recounting of lived experience.

But what REALLY REALLY pisses us off is the disappointment of our own wishful thinking and self-delusion.

I was disturbed and confused by the reactions that arose from the discovery that not all the events it the book actually occurred. The beauty in the book was that this was a man who invited millions of people into his life and his constant struggle through it. Maybe it was dishonest of him to embellish some of the details, but the courage that it took him to admit his mistake is enormous. I admire both his courage and his generosity in sharing his life's loves and hardships.

"All writers are liars."

--Harlan Ellison

"All stories are true."

--Alan Moore

Just some notes for you to ponder:

o I think, in my culture, there is a tendency of taking things literally. Of confusing the words I read as being actual objects.

o Imagination is a skill. Something that is learned.

o In the 19th Century a form of philosophy took hold and is still with us today. It is called Logical Positivism and it essentially states that nothing is worth examining if it cannot be sensed in some way. Thus, the imagination, or fiction, isn't' worth considering because it isn't 'as real' as, say, my foot.

o Ideas are as real, but in a different sense, as gravity.

o English has become more and more of a technical language, losing more and more of its mystery and life and creativity as time goes on.

o Those who take a book literally deserve it. And should take responsibility for their own reactions.

I read A Million Little Pieces after the author admitted that he'd made up parts of it. It really didn't bother me. Now if, say, Al Gore admitted that he totally made up his stats about global warming in "An Inconvenient Truth", that would bother me. But this guy was only ever presenting the story as a snapshot of his personal experience, so it's not of any big consequence to me.