Like Oprah, Krakauer felt similarly conned and decided to use his medium to respond to the betrayal. But when an April episode of the show 60 minutes called the veracity of Mortenson’s inspirational best seller Three Cups of Tea into question, Krakauer rapidly transitioned into Mortenson’s loudest critic. Just as Oprah supported Frey, Krakauer supported Mortenson, donating considerable sums to the non-profit Mortenson founded, the Central Asia Institute. Last month, the humanitarian author of that book, Greg Mortenson, was accused of similarly betraying his advocate, author Jon Krakauer. Readers also invested in the uplifting tale Three Cups of Tea, the story of “one man’s mission to promote peace - one school at a time.” They are angry because they invested in the redeeming value of the story. When readers find out they’ve been conned by a feel-good memoir like Frey’s, they get angry. In a story in New Yorker Magazine on the history of the memoir, Daniel Mendehlsohn writes: Winfrey’s susceptibility suggests how an immoderate yearning for stories that end satisfyingly-what William Dean Howells once described to Edith Wharton as the American taste for “a tragedy with a happy ending”-makes us vulnerable to frauds and con men peddling pat uplift. Oprah has fallen for another feel-good fake memoir in the past, authored by Herman Rosenblat, a Holocaust survivor who embellished his true story of survival in the camps. Now, as Oprah winds down the final week of her last ever season five years later, she has invited Frey back on the show once more for what might be an apology.Īccording to Frey, Oprah recently apologized to the author and says she now realizes her ambush of Frey was more about her bruised ego and feeling personally betrayed.ĭuring the interview, which will stretch over two episodes, they are likely to talk about what happened in 2006 as well as Frey’s upcoming book, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible.

Frey called the 2006 interview a “public stoning.” An announcer this week called it “the biggest controversy in Oprah show history.” Oprah had championed A Million Little Pieces for her book club and defended Frey more than once against his detractors before realizing the book had some not-so-little lies in it. That's a lie,” she cut in when he tried to defend himself. “You conned us all,” Oprah told Frey, as he sat there squirming. In this photo taken April 30, 2011, talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, right, interviews author James Frey in New York during taping for 'The Oprah Winfrey Show.' The interview will stretch over two episodes on May 16-17.

A million little pieces oprah