Why Didn’t He Do This in the First Place?

From today’s Wall Street Journal:

A controversial memoirist is writing a new chapter in his life -- and this time he’s saying upfront that it’s fiction.

Author James Frey, disgraced in a literary scandal and shunned by the publishing industry last year, is being given a second chance, as a major publisher has agreed to publish his debut novel.

Mr. Frey’s best-selling memoir “A Million Little Pieces” was denounced as a fraud after the Web site thesmokinggun.com in January 2006 revealed numerous discrepencies in the author's gripping account of how his life was almost destroyed by drugs. Mr. Frey had represented his story as factual, and many readers felt angry and betrayed.

More of the Journal’s story can be found here.