Friends Will Be Friends (My Friend Leonard - James Frey)

Member Name: IainWear

Product:	My Friend Leonard - James Frey
Date:	14/12/05 (1541 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very emotional

Disadvantages: Frey's style can grate a little

James Frey’s debut “A Million Little Pieces” was a simply amazing journey through his addiction and recovery. It was written in an almost stream of consciousness style with very few paragraph breaks, no speech marks and was as difficult to follow as it was to deal with the subject matter. But for those who persevere, it’s a wild and enjoyable ride.

“My Friend Leonard” is a continuation of the same story. Now out of rehab, James is in jail waiting for his release so he can move to Chicago to be with his girlfriend Lilly, who was one of many people he met in rehab. After Lilly struggles with the death of her sick grandmother, the only person she believes truly loves her; James discovers his arrival in Chicago is about a day too late.

Having lost both his former life and the person he thinks could make his future life worth living, James struggles to adjust to life without drink or drugs. Until one day he comes home from work to discover his friend Leonard, the best friend he made in rehab, filling his fridge with food. Leonard is the kind of man who can fix things, a man who makes things happen. He treats James like his son and helps him get his “after” life in a decent state, with a good job, with regular visits, with whatever James needs.

James eventually gets over Lilly and moves on with his life. Thanks to Leonard, he thrives and thanks to various friends and lovers, he learns how it feels to be a normal human being again. As with any normal person his life is not without trials and failure, or heartache and disappointment. But thanks to Leonard, neither is James’ life without fun and some wild times.

The writing style here remains the same as in “A Million Little Pieces”. There are very few paragraph breaks and although the sentences are mostly properly formed, there is little in the way of other punctuation and no speech marks at all. Whilst this makes following conversations a little hard to start with, you do get used to it fairly quickly and it’s actually easier to handle second time around and you know what to expect. Even so, there were a few passages I had to read more than once to totally follow the thread of a discussion, mostly the ones where there were more than two people talking.

Once you’ve got the hang of the writing style, though, it’s a very easy book to read. It’s quite an all action writing style and it’s quite an all action life with James making many changes as he adjusts to life on the outside. He keeps himself pretty busy to keep himself from going back to his old ways so there’s plenty going on and the parts where Leonard is around are the busiest and wildest of all.

The one part where the book doesn’t sit quite right is in the best times and the quiet moments. It’s a pretty basic, stripped down style and it worked very well in “A Million Little Pieces” when there was a lot of pain and suffering in James’ life. Here, it’s not quite as effective as the writing doesn’t suit happiness quite as well. It’s when there is heartache that it really comes into its own.

However, it is in these times that we can see how James Frey has improved as a writer between the two books. Before, he never really knew how to be happy and some of the scenes in his previous book where he had those brief moments of peace were a little clunky and ill fitting. This time around, he can describe his full range of emotions a lot better. The style may not always work, but the words he’s using fit the scenarios pretty much perfectly.

While he doesn’t use too many paragraph breaks, he’s using his chapters a lot better this time around, helping to increase the pace with the length of those and the use of fragmented sentences, rather than relying too much on describing everything that goes on. He’s better this time around at knowing what to leave out, not feeling the need to cover every single moment of what is going on. In any life, there are quiet times. In his last book, he tried to fill them. In this one, he just passes them by.

As with his earlier book, there are moments of breathtaking beauty in “My Friend Leonard”, particularly at either end of the story. A less hard hearted person than me is likely to be moved to tears at more than one point throughout the book and it is always a testament to the skill of the story teller when words on a page can affect you in that way.

Although it’s a sequel, “My Friend Leonard” doesn’t have to be read that way. Admittedly, the writing style will be easier to follow if you’re not coming to it fresh and there are some details that make more sense if you know the “before” story, but James gives enough detail that you can understand where Lilly and Leonard came into his life and that’s really all you need to know. In time, what went before and what comes after ceases to matter, as it’s all too easy to be sucked into the moment that you’re reading about.

Although there is a fair amount of profanity and strong language in this book, there is less that will disgust you, which was often a hallmark of “A Million Little Pieces”. There are more moments of profound beauty and more of joy this time around although, thanks to the way it’s written and the language, it’s still not really ideally suited to a quiet afternoon’s reading, but as a way to spend time whilst travelling. It’s a book to fill space between activities, rather than a book to be read as an activity.

“My Friend Leonard” is currently only available in hardback, with the paperback version not due until March 2006. However, if you read and enjoyed or were moved by “A Million Little Pieces”, I’d recommend you lay your hands on a copy of this right away. Although it’s expensive, at £11.89 from Amazon, £12.99 from Play.com or from £10.00 at the Amazon Marketplace, it’s an emotional ride that needs to be experienced.

For those who have not read the first book, I highly recommend you read that and come back to this later on. Not doing that will not necessarily mean you get less enjoyment from “My Friend Leonard”, but to do so would increase the understanding you have of Frey’s life and his writing style and will make certain parts of this book even more emotional as you’ll have more attachment to the characters concerned.

This isn’t a book for someone who enjoys chick lit and very little else. It’s for someone who is prepared to take a chance on something raw and real and is prepared to take the time to feel the emotions of the characters. It’s not always an easy book or an easy feeling to deal with, but it’s worth the effort as well as the cover price in the end. James Frey isn’t the only one who can refer to the man in this way - I too now feel as if Leonard is my friend.

Summary: The sequel to the amazing "A Million Little Pieces"