A Million Little Pieces

A Million Little Pieces is a book about a young man by the name of James Frey, who has an addiction to drugs and alcohol. At the beginning of the story James checks into a drug/alcohol rehabilitation center in Minnesota and befriends two people. One’s name is Lilly, a young woman addicted to crack. The other one’s name is Leonard, a middle aged criminal, also addicted to drugs. James grew to love Lilly and secretly meets with her on occasion. I say secretly because in the clinic men and woman are not allowed to interact with each other. The two meeting together and loving each other gave me a romantic feeling because it made me feel good about the two having something positive in their lives. In one point of the story, Leonard tells James a deep story about how he got to the clinic. This story that he told him made me feel the bond between the two because it showed lots of emotion. James and his family attended a Family Program at the clinic, which is a family meeting to discuss James’s issues and progress. James learns that his grandfather was an alcoholic. His parent’s believe that this could be a reason for his alcoholism, but he doesn’t want to believe that that is why he is an alcoholic. He thinks it is an excuse for his weakness. I think when someone has an addiction, whatever it is, they tend to become defensive and try to make excuses when someone brings up their addiction. So, James realizing that his alcoholism was a weakness made me feel good for him. From here on James starts to change positively. At the end of the book , James finally was ready to leave the clinic. He got picked up by his brother and friend and asked them immediately to take him to the bar. So, they took him to a bar and asked the bartender for a whole pint of whiskey. He looked at it, smelled it, then asked the bartender to poor it down the drain. This was the best part of the book to me because it made me feel tremendous for James to finally overcome his addiction. It was a good feeling to know that a long-time drug and alcohol addict could have the strength to ask the bartender to poor that pint of whiskey down the drain; especially after seeing some alcohol for the first time in a long time.