Most people know Horatio Alger’s name. But very few know why. Horatio Alger's name serves as a descriptive, short-hand, monicker for “rags-to riches”.

Some may say that James Frey’s name has become synonymous with fakery, disingenuousness, or fraud.

And I say, both are wrong.

Horatio Alger wrote over 100 dime store novels. All about various Americans striving to rise above their station in life. Most of the time Alger's characters did not end up in riches. But rather these characters succeeded in making it just past the middle-class.

To call something a Horatio Alger story is an easy, albeit lazy way to describe someone’s ascension in America.

James Frey wrote A MILLION LITTLE PIECES a memoir. Americans loved it, including Oprah. Until. It was discovered that some of A MILLION LITTLE PIECES a memoir was fabricated and/or embellished. America was shocked! Shocked! And so was Oprah. Only problem is, there is no such thing as an unembellished biography, an unvarnished telling of events. You tell me a story from your life, and swear to me every detail is precise and accurate. Have you mis-remembered anything? Do you have a natural inclination to edit yourself when you speak? Are you sure?

As I was reading James Frey’s 1st novel BRIGHT SHINY MORNING, and I was taking notes and forming a review of the book in my mind, I made a promise to myself not to mention the over-blown scandal that engulfed Frey’s previous works. But, here I am, and I’ve already written over 100 words about that very thing. Why? Because it works in the “narrative” (if a book review can indeed have a narrative) of the piece.

When Mr. Frey sat down to write A MILLION LITTLE PIECES, I’m almost certain he did not intend to embellish or alter the events of his life. But, the fact is, Mr. Frey is a writer, an artist, and as such, when it came down to it, if there was a need for this, or a need for that, color here, exclamation there, it had to be done, for the betterment of the work, that’s what writers and artists do.

BRIGHT SHINY MORNING is a Horatio Alger story set within the confines of Los Angeles County California. Raymond Carver meets Studs Turkel meets Michael Tolkin. Think Robert Altman’s SHORT CUTS (1993) pitched with a shot of humility.

THIS AMERICAN LIFE-like vignettes bind the novel, interspersed with bits and pieces of this-day-in-history like lessons scattered throughout.

We are introduced to Esperanza, a noble and endearing Latino girl, with ambitions to make a better life for herself and her long-struggling mother and father.

We are sent on a whirlwind trip through L.A. via a elbow to elbow, over-populated, over-built, and over-stimulated populace.

Characters and stories weave in and out of one another like the sprawling urban interstate highway system built up around the cultural center of Modern America.

Amberton is a gay movie star with a beautiful wife and equally beautiful children.

Dylan and Maddie arrive in L.A. from a shit-hole hick-town middle of bum-fuck egypt middle-america heartland god’s country where-ever it doesn’t fuckin’ matter. They escaped.

Old Man Joe is homeless. Well, not really homeless. He lives in a nice bathroom behind a taco stand, complete with working toilet and a sink with hot and cold running water. In the cold recesses of the toilet tank rests Old Man Joe’s Chablais.

I read through the first 3/4 of BRIGHT SHINY MORNING in 2 days, and had to slow down, in order to savor the last 100 or so pages, because BRIGHT SHINY MORNING is one of those books that is so readable, so enjoyable, so riveting, you find yourself saying, “ah, hell, one more chapter before 2 am.”

And then when you see the final pages coming, the number of pages, the thickness, or rather the thinness of the remaining pages pressed between your thumb and index finger, your heart sinks a little, knowing the end is near.

You start second guessing the author, trying to figure out how he will wrap up all the storylines within the limited number of pages left.

I don’t know anything about James Frey’s life. Because, I never read A MILLION LITTLE PIECES. But, whatever his childhood or his early adulthood may have been like, the fact is, he writes about what it’s like to live in poverty, and all that miserable existence encompasses better than any writer I have ever read.

From Esparanza’s humiliating experience as a maid in a Rich Bitch’s house to Old Man Joe’s honorable Don Quixotesque life on the street to Dylan and Maddie’s fragile existence as lovers in search of a better life.

Frey conveys all the nuances and the tiny little details that go into the making of a heartbreak.

There is more honesty and integrity written into these characters than all the untruths previously uncovered.

BRIGHT SHINY MORNING is a heart-breaking work of staggering genius.

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