A Million Little Pieces is a book, published in 2003, describing the author's stay in an addiction clinic in order to become clean from his heavy alcohol and drug use, in the early 1990's. He makes a lot of friends and enemies among the other patients in the clinic. In flashbacks, the story also describes the author's past Descent into Addiction and relationship with a (now ex-) girlfriend before the events in the current timeline.
You can expect many Hard-Drinking Tropes and Drug Tropes in play in the work, of course.
The book was originally published as memoir/biography and was as such taken to be a 100% accurate description of real-life events. It was quite a success and was even taken up by Oprah Winfrey's Book Club. Later the book became Overshadowed by Controversy when it turned out that the book was actually only Very Loosely Based on a True Story, and parts of it were more or less fiction by the author. Frey himself responded that it had been his publisher who had pushed him to publish it as memoir/biography rather than as fiction, and also explained that his memory of certain events may not have been 100% accurate because of the drug/alcohol use itself.
The book was made into a film, released in 2018, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as James, Billy Bob Thornton as Leonard and Juliette Lewis as Lily.
Not to be confused with the entirely unrelated TV-series A Million Little Things. And if you were looking for the Trope, see Dramatic Shattering.
A Million Little Pieces has examples of:
- The '90s: Though published in 2003, it is set in the early 90s and this clearly shows in the cultural references.
- Addled Addict: James' drug use and alcoholism lead to him not being able to keep jobs or relationships, and to him becoming violent and breaking the law under the influence. By the time the books starts and he is admitted to the clinic for it, his life is in shambles because of it.
- The Alcoholic: James was a raging alcoholic, to the point he drinks huge amounts daily, has horrible withdrawal symptoms when he stops drinking, and needs to be hospitalized for it.
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Under the influence of alcohol and crack cocaine, James runs over a cop.
- Distinction Without a Difference: When James is arrested on about a dozen felony charges he admits he's guilty of all of them except one: he claims the "intention to distribute drugs" charge doesn't hold because he wasn't planning to sell the drugs in question (keep in mind he actually was a drug dealer; he was just claiming that he hadn't intended to sell these specific drugs...)
- Drunk Driver: James gets behind the wheel when drunk and high on crack cocaine, and is arrested for this (and more importantly, for running over a cop).
- Freudian Excuse: At the end James finds out from his mother that he was an excessively crying baby, which turned out to be because he had undetected chronic ear infections. His psychologist, and consequently James himself, then blame the drug addictions he developed as a teenager/adult on these medical issues he had as a baby.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: When Sir Swears-a-Lot Matty tries to swear less, he switches to using words like "feckhead", "grasshole" and "kicksucker".
- Hates Being Touched: James recoils whenever his parents express physical affection, especially when they want to hug him, and he tries to avoid it because he hates it.
- Hookers and Blow: Michael was introduced to cocaine by the prostitutes he visited, and became addicted to using both (presumably at the same time).
- The Loins Sleep Tonight: In a flashback, James tells that when he and the girlfriend he had at the time finally decided to have sex, he couldn't get an erection, much to his embarrassment.
- Manly Tears: John breaks down and James comforts him, saying "I Think men who can cry are strong men".
- Must Have Caffeine: All of the clinic patients, but especially James himself, consume copious amounts of coffee. James takes his assigned job of brewing the coffee for everyone, very seriously.
- "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Inverted. The book was originally published as memoir/biography, but later editions added a foreword by the author in which he explains that it might not be a 100% true account of real-life events—also explained by the fact that the heavy drug/alcohol use itself may have impacted his brain function/memory, of course.
- Off the Wagon: Lily runs away from the clinic at the end and relapses into drug abuse again. Luckily quickly subverted when James comes to rescue her from the dealers and take her back to the clinic.
- Pink Elephants: A rare example where it is portrayed in a medically correct way: James has hallucinations after he ''stops drinking alcohol and is in the detox phase, not before that when he is drunk.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse'': When James meets Matty, the first thing he remarks about Matty is how small (both in height and in weight) the latter is. Matty turns out to be a boxing champion in the featherweight category.
- The Power of Friendship: James comes close to running away from the clinic and quitting rehab many times; not to mention that he even considers committing suicide. But it is because the friends he make in the clinic, especially Leonard, that he stays in the clinic, chooses to live, and chooses to stay sober.
- Recovered Addict: James comes out of the clinic clean and sober at the end of the story, and according to the postscriptum was still clean over a decade later when the book was published.
- Shout-Out:
- James is given a copy of the book Tao te Ching, which exists in real life, by his brother, and it is frequently quoted.
- James watches a popular tv-show about "some witty New Yorkers who spend all of their time in their appartment"; seeing that the book is set in the 90s, this is clearly a reference to Friends.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Matty swears prolifically. When everybody has to write down a resolution, his is, ironically, "Stop Fucking swearing".
- Truth in Television:
- In-Universe, this is subverted. James watches a Medical Drama on TV which shows a heroin addict becoming clean and turning their entire life around in just one episode; he remarks how addction is completely misrepresented on TV and nothing like reality at all.
- Played straight for how the book itself portrays addiction and detox. Hallucinations occur not under the influence of alcohol, but when getting sober. Long term alcohol use can damage your brain function/memory. Sleeping pills/benzodiazepines are indeed (temporarily!) given as treatment in the acute detox phase.
