My copy of KATERINA is underlined and dog-eared. It left me crying on the last page and wrenched emotion from me on every page. I loved returning to James Frey’s writing style from A MILLION LITTLE PIECES (which I will now reread). It’s poetic and powerful, breaking the rules of grammar and punctuation — which I find artistic, bold and freeing.
If you’re not one for swearing or crudeness, be forewarned, this book is loaded. I’d actually love to see a word count for the “F” word — maybe even as a percentage of total words. KATERINA (like Frey’s other books) is gritty, raw, raunchy, explicit and personal.
I’d really never before thought about how, as writers, our art is constrained — by punctuation, spelling, grammar, rules, rules, rules. It’s unlike any other form of art. No one tells an artist how to use his materials or what materials are acceptable. A photographer can put film into sand, light or salt water to see what happens. But writers are edited. Must put commas and quotation marks where they belong. Use semi-colons. I hate semi-colons. Frey’s writing illuminated something for me — even though I’ll still listen to my beloved editor and not string together two complete sentences with only a comma. But I admire his writing for the very fact that he ignores the rules and writes. It’s clearly from his heart and gut, and it pours out feeling honest. I felt that with A MILLION LITTLE PIECES, despite the inherent dishonesty surrounding its publication. There’s something true about the way he writes.
Click to read the full review on BookReporter.
Loved chatting with James at Book Expo and here at RJ Julia on Katerina’s release day.
