My Friend Leonard

by James Frey

Overview

Perhaps the most unconventional and literally breathtaking father-son story you'll ever read, My Friend Leonard pulls you immediately and deeply into a relationship as unusual as it is inspiring.

The father figure is Leonard, the high-living, recovering coke addict "West Coast Director of a large Italian-American finance firm" (read: mobster) who helped to keep James Frey clean in A Million Little Pieces. The son is, of course, James, damaged perhaps beyond repair by years of crack and alcohol addiction-and by more than a few cruel tricks of fate.

James embarks on his post-rehab existence in Chicago emotionally devastated, broke, and afraid to get close to other people. But then Leonard comes back into his life, and everything changes. Leonard offers his "son" lucrative—if illegal and slightly dangerous—employment. He teaches James to enjoy life, sober, for the first time. He instructs him in the art of "living boldly," pushes him to pursue his passion for writing, and provides a watchful and supportive veil of protection under which James can get his life together. Both Leonard's and James's careers flourish…but then Leonard vanishes. When the reasons behind his mysterious absence are revealed, the book opens up in unexpected emotional ways.

My Friend Leonard showcases a brilliant and energetic young writer rising to important new challenges—displaying surprising warmth, humor, and maturity—without losing his intensity. This book proves that one of the most provocative literary voices of his generation is also one of the most emphatically human.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594481956
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/30/2006
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	258,074
Product dimensions:	5.21(w) x 7.98(h) x 0.91(d)
Age Range:	18 - 17 Years

About the Author

James Frey is the author of the memoir A Million Little Pieces.

Author photo by Annelore Van Herjiwen

Hometown:

New York, New York

Date of Birth:

1969

Place of Birth:

Cleveland, Ohio

Website:

http://www.bigjimindustries.com

Read an Excerpt

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. I was standing in line for lunch and I didn't see it coming. I went down. When I got up, I turned around and I started throwing punches. I landed two or three before I got hit again, this time in the face. I went down again. I wiped blood away from my nose and my mouth and I got up I started throwing punches again. Porterhouse put me in a headlock and started choking me. He leaned towards my ear and said I'm gonna let you go. If you keep fighting me I will fucking hurt you bad. Stay down and I will leave you alone. He let go of me, and I stayed down.
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "My Friend Leonard"
by .
Copyright © 2006 James Frey.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

"As smart as it is heartfelt, this tribute to friendship is a far sunnier book than Frey's debut.... Frey's cool, shrewd eye for detail ties it all together, whether he's describing the inside of a jail, a Super Bowl party, or the plaintive rootlessness of life in Los Angeles." —Malcolm Jones, Newsweek

"he engrossing story of a bizarre friendship between the author and a dangerous mobster." —People

"Frey's appeal lies in his ability to tell his down and dirty, hair-raising story in sparse, hypnotic prose—in this sense he's already a master stylist, of kind. No subject , no height or depth of human experience is too extreme for him to come around on with deadeye grace and force of his beautiful, sad, potent, irresistible prose." —Elle

"Has a ferocity and a narrative drive that won't surprise Frey's fans, but is full of unexpected heart that might." —Details

“Suffused with anger and regret, written by a man who has straddled the line between life and death and has taken his time figuring out which side he wants to jump to. He spares no gory details.” —Poets & Writers Magazine (cover story)

"Brave and bold... This is not a document but a rendering, just as Van Gogh's self-portrait distorts his face to capture the riot of emotions behind the eyes... Frey describes how he put feelings back into his life, and the effect is vivid, splashy, mesmerizing. Indeed, he has put the Technicolor back into the memoir." —Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Examines [Frey’s] relationship with the title figure, a Las Vegas mobster who helps him through rehab, jail and the terrifying terrain of sobriety…a tender story of male friendship.” —Chicago Tribune

“My Friend Leonard is just as compelling as the first book, with the same electrifying narrative energy, stylistic daring and atmosphere of emotional risk…Frey is exceptionally good at conveying the emotional truths behind the events he relates. His portrait of his friendship with Leonard is deeply resonant and offers a fuller human portrait of a gangster than you’re likely to find anywhere else.” —Bookpage

“[A] great story by a talented writer.” —Wisconsin State Journal

“[A] must-read.” —Sacramento Bee

"

What makes the book as difficult and challenging as its predecessor is Frey’s ability to meet his new losses head-on. What makes it more inspiring is his determination to see things through, without the drugs as a crutch, to their unfortunate, heartbreaking end...Frey succeeds in making Leonard cut fast and close to the core." —Time Out New York

"Frey achieves another stylistic coup... Frey's style throughout is loose, untraditional, but perfectly crafted... This book packs a full emotional wallop... Frey's extraordinary relationship with Leonard is alive, a flesh-and-blood bond." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A fine, grim tale full of smarting immediacy… A small fortune could be made by bottling this story and selling it as an antidote to self-pity. Frey will have to settle for the small fortune it will make in big sales.” —Kirkus (starred review)

“A raw, often visceral, reading experience. With Frey’s emotions so close to the surface, it’s impossible not to care about Frey’s struggles to reintegrate into society and prosper. Another powerful read from a talented, dynamic author.” —Booklist (starred, boxed review)

From the Publisher

The title character of this book is the most unconventional father figure in recent memory. Leonard is the high-living, secretive recovering coke addict and mob hired gun who played a central role in James Frey's A Million Little Pieces. Starting where that book ended, My Friend Leonard tracks Frey and his supportive surrogate father in post-rehab and post-prison life. By turns hilarious and bittersweet, this memoir never slips into maudlin rambling.

Frey describes how he put feelings back into his life, and the effect is vivid, splashy, mesmerizing.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

As smart as it is heartfelt, this tribute to friendship is a far sunnier book than Frey's debut.

Newsweek

Another powerful read from a talented, dynamic author. (Starred Review)

Booklist

Frey achieves another stylistic coup as he develops a narrative thread begun in 2003's A Million Little Pieces. He chronicles his journey out of the terrifying darkness of addiction, and the friend he meets along the way, Leonard. A gangster, raconteur and mentor, Leonard was introduced in Pieces as one of Frey's new rehab friends. Here, he pushes Frey out into the world, pampering him one moment, giving him tough love the next. As in Pieces, Frey's style throughout is loose, untraditional yet perfectly crafted: "[Leonard] offered me his hand and said good, I'm fucked up too, and I like fucked-up people, let's sit and eat and see if we can be friends. I took his hand and I shook it and we sat down and we ate together and we became friends." There's something mesmerizing about the endless tumble of words, the nonstop spilling out of Frey's troubles and triumphs. In the hands of a less capable writer, all of this cool, tight narration might numb the reader and distance the experience. Instead, this book packs a full-body emotional wallop. Frey's eye is keen for detail: the inside of a county lockup; the flat, gray Chicago winter; an out-of-control Super Bowl party in Los Angeles; the grind of living day to day-all come alive in his sparse, powerful prose. At its core, this is an examination of a friendship. Frey's extraordinary relationship with Leonard is alive, a flesh-and-blood bond forged in the agony of rehab and sustained through honesty and trust. Agent, Kassie Evashevski at Brillstein/Grey Entertainment. (June) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

In this follow-up to his best-selling A Million Little Pieces, which described his near-fatal descent into addiction, Frey gets out of jail and embarks on a mission to live a drug- and alcohol-free life with his new girlfriend, Lilly. Before he can reach her, however, she hangs herself over the death of her grandmother. Enter Leonard, a "father figure" mobster Frey met in rehab who gives him highly lucrative (albeit highly illegal) work, indulges him in lavish feasts and parties, and simply teaches him how to enjoy life to the fullest-without illegal substances and booze. While this memoir addresses serious issues that would ostensibly interest readers (love and loss, suicide, sexual orientation, AIDS, and criminal activity), Frey's writing style utterly fails to engage. There is no distinction between one voice and the next, which makes it difficult to tell who is speaking; the lack of sentence variation and punctuation makes for a monotone narrative so that potentially exciting or emotional events have little impact. Even the most tenacious fans of Frey's more successful first book will have trouble plowing through to the end. Not a first purchase, but prepare for demand.-Dale Raben, School Library Journal Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Controversial writer James Frey's memoir recounts his relationship with his father, an Italian mobster who offers him employment and, in doing so, becomes a friend to his son for the fist time. Whether Frey’s story is entirely true or not, given the controversy surrounding his first memoir, A MILLION LITTLE PIECES, narrator Andy Paris offers a compelling reading. Paris steps into Frey's shoes and relates the most intimate details of his life with seeming ease, and there is an underlying emotionality in his voice that makes it sound as if Frey were relating the story himself. A richly textured performance. L.B. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

OCT/NOV 08 - AudioFile