PORTRAIT OF ADDICTION UNLOCKS MANY PUZZLES

Millions of Americans are battling addictions. Statistics show,
however, that only a small percentage of these demon-plagued souls
will remain drug or alcohol free for a significant length of time.

James Frey's best seller "A Million Little Pieces" is a journey
through the experience of one man's struggle to break the stronghold
of such an addiction. In the case of Frey, it was an alcohol
addiction which began in grade school and soon progressed into a
dependency on crack cocaine.

The details of Frey's rehabilitation are graphic and frightening.
Throughout his detoxification, his body suffers constant torment from
the purging of the residue of the toxins on which he lived for so
long. When these are finally flushed out of his body, his frail
skeleton just as violently rejects the wholesome nutrients which he
voraciously gulps down at each meal.

One of the most unnerving sequences describes the extensive dental
work performed on him to repair his broken teeth (a result of his
many bar/drug den fights) and the rest of his decaying and abcessed
oral cavity. All of this he must endure without anesthesia since he
is going through rehab at the time. Needless to say, not since the
film The Marathon Man has there been such a terror producing image of
dentistry.

But Frey's memoir is so much more than a voyeuristic glimpse of the
physical and emotional symptomology of withdrawal. It is a brilliant
analysis of his descent into madness and painfully slow climb out of
the abyss. His use of rapid fire conversational exchange is jarring
at first, but it soon becomes apparent that his style of writing
mirrors his disjointed and intense experience.

But all the way through, the reader can't help but search for an
explanation. How did this seemingly well-raised, middle-class boy
become so self-destructive? It is to Frey's credit that he is able to
unearth the key to the puzzle for himself as well as for his
audience. The reader will find some satisfaction not only in finding
a catalyst for Frey's extreme behavior but also in the subtle yet
effective change in writing style that accompanies his self-revelation.

"A Million Little Pieces" is a literary masterpiece, perhaps not in
the style of the great classics, but as a cultural Rosetta stone for
the ennui and despair of the modern age.

Mara Zukowski, 52, lives in South River.