Opinions are running pretty strong on the subject of James Frey's A Million Little Pieces. My take on it is simple: the guy lied. As a reader, I feel completely betrayed. Had he published it as a novel -- his original intention -- I would have read it, been moved by it, and walked away from it thinking, that was a good read. But because he sent it out as a memoir, as non-fiction, as a true story, I read it with different expectations. I thought it was true. All of it.

Many who've read the book say it doesn't matter whether or not he made parts of it up. They say that the book changed their lives, gave them hope, propelled them toward sobriety. I've even had people e-mail me saying that they're glad that he lied and called it a memoir because they don't have time to waste on fiction. That one hits me like a punch in the gut. I've wasted a whole lot of time in my life -- standing in lines, watching reruns of Full House, shopping for the perfect bathing suit -- but I've never wasted a minute on the pages of a book.

As a young woman, Alice Sebold was raped. She wrote a harrowing memoir about the experience. It's called Lucky. Later, she wrote another book about a girl who was brutally raped, and this time, murdered. That book, The Lovely Bones, was a novel. The memoir was a journey through brutal personal experience. The novel elevated that experience to art, and showed the reader the beauty and possibility of redemption. Both are heartbreaking, exquisite pieces of writing. One is true, the other fiction. That difference matters. It mattered to the writer, and it should matter to us, the readers.

James Frey cheated. In calling his story true, he signaled to us that what we were reading wasn't merely a diversion. It was a story with real stakes, real lives, and consequences that could neither be manufactured nor erased with a few keystrokes. We cared more about the character "James Frey" than we would have about a made-up creation. We invested more in his story than we might have in a novel. His deception stings all the more because, having taken that journey with him, we believed in his redemption. We believed that he'd left the addict's life of self-serving lies behind. It's a pity that he didn't. This time, it's his readers who got scammed.