James Frey is a liar, but at least he exists.
Underground novelist J.T. LeRoy (see Faux Bro?) is now thought to be a complete hoax, created by two San Francisco musicians and played in public by a 20something designer of trash couture.
This, and Frey's damnable lies, are explained at Swallowing the Camel.

I bought Frey's A Million Little Pieces because, like thousands of other women, I was intrigued by what Oprah's staff had to say about it: "I couldn't put it down."
Well, I put it down. And it was only after seeing Frey on Larry King Live that I picked it up again, even though I already knew The Smoking Gun had exposed his "million little lies".
Watching Frey interviewed by King, I suspected The Smoking Gun was nitpicking. Who cares exactly how many months he spent in jail? I thought. That doesn't mean his entire memoir is a crock; it's about the ravages of addiction, not prison sentences.
However, I hadn't finished the book. I was only halfway through it at the time, and didn't realize that Mr. Frey's crimes and prison time are pivotal plot points in both A Million Little Pieces and its follow-up, My Friend Leonard.
I also didn't realize - because, let's face it, Larry King is about the worst interviewer going - that Mr. Frey had fabricated his role in a tragic accident that occurred in his hometown in 1986.
I was rooting for Frey, I truly was. I cringed when he mentioned that Jerzy Kosinsky (author of a controversial 1965 novel, The Painted Bird) also had problems with readers who tried to sort out fact from fiction, and Larry King jumped in with, "But he killed himself!" I thought, Oh, smooth, Larry, knock a recovering addict right over the edge. Brilliant.
I was thrilled when Oprah phoned in at the end of the show to give her continued support to A Million Little Pieces, telling America that the essential truth of James Frey's experiences is invaluable to thousands of people who found inspiration and enlightenment in his story - the little details, like jail time, aren't as important as the impact the book continues to have.
Then I read the rest of the book. And The Smoking Gun's report.
And now I'm not rooting for Mr. Frey so much anymore. Actually, I think he's a total dink.

The book isn't so hot. It's either underwritten or overwritten; these days, I can't tell. There's a lot of repetition. The words run together, sentences run on, and there's a bizarre use of capitalization that I don't understand. Anyone could write like this. Allow me to demonstrate.

"Today I had to had to had to go to the Store. I walked to the Door and I picked up my Keys and I opened the Door and I stepped out the Door and I closed the Door and I locked it with my Keys. I f***ing locked it with my f***ing Keys."

If you haven't already shelled out your $14.95 ($21.00 Cdn), please don't. There are a million books out there better than this one.