My Friend Leonard

"It took me 6 weeks to get through this and that's saying something seeing how thinly structured this book is. If you didn't read the fraudulent predecessor, you'd be lost--or maybe not since it's written on a third grade reading level. Frey pulled a fast one on me a few years ago. I dismissed the writing style then because I thought we were dealing with someone with a fragile state of mind. Here, there seems to be a lack of consistency. What happened to his love of reading from the first book? It changes to drawings and paintings in this book. I'm supposed to believe a struggling screenwriter turns down massive amount of money left to him from a friend that loved him like a father-and what about the strife between him and his parents? It just melts away? I just hated this book. I read it because I bought it before the scandal broke and it was the next book in my TBR pile. Trust me when I say Frey won't be getting another dime from me.


"
~ Written on 2008-08-25

"The book is very good written and read, and I also would have a friend like Leonard, he is very good."
~ Written on 2008-08-23

"I have strong feelings about memoirs. I believe that everyone remembers things their own way, and in Frey's case we cannot expect a drug addict to remember things the way it actually happened. This story is amazing and touching and surprising. I am glad I read it after A Million Little Pieces. I am also glad I grew up in Los Angeles, it helped me visualize the scenes better. Frey's writing style flows like thoughts and it helped me really get the things he was feeling, the way he just let it flow."
~ Written on 2008-08-20

"In my copy of this book, I couldn't find one notation at all as to where this book is fiction, a memoir or what. So, I read it thinking it was true (it's a little more fun to read that way), but ended suspecting as I did all along that much of this story was made up. But, I'm not sure...my copy just doesn't have any info and what I look up online seems to vary.

Moving on....I really enjoyed this book! In fact, I liked it more than A Million Little Pieces. Probably in part because this was a much happier book, even though a lot of depressing things happen. Also, once you're already familiar with a set of characters, it seems the second time around you enjoy them even more, almost as if they are friends. Either way, I liked the book for the most part.

As with AMLP, Frey's writing style can grate on your nerves. The fact that many of his sentences are run-ons and omitt proper punctuation, it's just annoying. The editor should have fixed this. I don't feel it added anything to this story. What I did like, was how some pages only contained one paragraph or two. This was done I believe to demonstrate a significant event or show a passage of time. Either way, I liked that aspect.

What sealed the deal for me? The last few pages I was in tears. I'm a very avid reader, but this doesn't happen often. I was that attached to the characters and what was written was that moving.

Overall I'd recommend this book to a friend. Although I still don't know if I'd recommend it as fiction or non. "
~ Written on 2008-08-11

"This might just be the best book I have ever read. It's a great story, a great 'sequel' to "A Million Little Pieces". I definitely recommend this book to anyone!"
~ Written on 2008-06-26