Literary Agent Drops James Frey

It's true: James Frey needs a new literary manager.

Brillstein-Grey Entertainment literary manager Kassie Evashevski, who represented the author of "A Million Little Pieces" for more than four years, said she's not representing him anymore because of his tall tales.

"In the last week, it became impossible for me to maintain a relationship once the trust had been broken," Evashevski told Publisher's Weekly for a story on Tuesday. "He eventually did apologize, but I felt for many reasons I had to let him go as a client."

Frey's story about drug addiction and recovery, originally released in 2003, zoomed up The New York Times best seller list when Oprah Winfrey named it her book club selection in September 2005. But early this year, The Smoking Gun Web site challenged some parts of the book, including Frey's claim that he served a three-month stint in prison.

Frey later admitted he had spent only a few hours in jail and had fabricated or embellished other parts of "Pieces."

Also Wednesday, news reports said that Frey had added a rare and dramatic author's note to new editions of his book. In it, he acknowledges alterations and embellishments throughout the text and admits that writing that narrative mattered more than truth in his admittedly fictionalized story of addiction and recovery.

Frey's note, itself a story of suffering and redemption, confirms much of what The Smoking Gun published in early January and builds upon his admission to Winfrey last week that he had lied: He invented a three-month jail term, exaggerated other run-ins with law officials and distorted his role in a train crash that killed a high school classmate. He also acknowledges making himself appear "tougher and more daring and more aggressive than in reality I was, or I am."

Evashevski said she had chosen to represent "Pieces" because "I thought the book was the most visceral and vivid description of drug addiction I had ever read."

She told Publisher's Weekly she didn't believe Frey set out to con anyone and she learned about his deception only after he called her to say thesmokinggun.com would be running a negative story about him.

She said she had kept quiet on the debate about "Pieces," which included Frey's appearances on CNN's "Larry King Live" and Winfrey's television shows, because she wanted to let Frey speak for himself.

Winfrey telephoned King's show to express support for the message of recovery in Frey's book, but days later she challenged the author on her own show about why he "felt the need to lie" about the events in his book and chastised him for betraying readers.

On a segment that also featured the book's publisher, Nan A. Talese of Doubleday, Frey was questioned about various parts of his book, from the three-month jail sentence he now says he never served to undergoing dental surgery without Novocain, a story he no longer clearly recalls.

Frey told Winfrey he didn't think of his book as a novel, despite its fiction.

"I still think it's a memoir," he said.

"A Million Little Pieces" is "a subjective truth, altered by the mind of a recovering drug addict and alcoholic. Ultimately, it's a story, and one I could not have written without having lived the life I've lived."

One of Frey's toughest critics, author Mary Karr, said Wednesday that Frey's note was self-serving and evasive. "He's sticking to his talking points," said Karr, whose books include the memoirs "The Liars' Club" and "Cherry."

"He keeps saying there's a great debate about fact and fiction in memoirs. But the only debate is in his mind. It's not really that hard; you just don't make stuff up."

Despite Frey's humiliation on Winfrey's TV talk show last week, "A Million Little Pieces" remained Wednesday in the top 10 on Amazon.com. and Barnes & Noble.com.

His future appears less promising. His literary agent has dropped him and his current publisher, Riverhead Books, is reconsidering a recent two-book deal. The first book, about contemporary Los Angeles, is scheduled to come out in 2007.