Quoted Leon Neyfakh On James Frey And The Land Of Make Believe 34763

If A Million Little Pieces taught us anything, it???s that readers love a good tale of redemption, and now that Mr. Frey is back with a new novel, the people who have agreed to help him sell it are going all out to convince the world that New York has forgiven Mr. Frey his sins…

And at least one publishing executive who believes himself to be one of the eight or nine Mr. Simonoff [Frey’s new agent, Eric Simonoff of Janklow & Nesbit] has been referring to in interviews suggests that his interest in the book was significantly more passive than Mr. Simonoff has represented.

???It???s a bit of a fig leaf,??? he went on, referring to Mr. Simonoff???s efforts to suggest that all is forgiven with Mr. Frey. Still, ???it may have the virtue of being true, which is not a bad thing. This is publishing. We hire the handicapped.???

–Excerpted from Leon Neyfakh’s piece in this week’s New York Observer, “Reconstructing Frey”