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Literary Agent Drops Disputed Author Frey

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


It's true, James Frey, you need a new literary manager.

Brillstein-Grey Entertainment literary manager Kassie Evashevski, who represented the author of "A Million Little Pieces" for more than four years, said she's not representing him anymore because of his tall tales.

"In the last week, it became impossible for me to maintain a relationship once the trust had been broken," Evashevski told Publisher Weekly for a story on Tuesday. "He eventually did apologize, but I felt for many reasons I had to let him go as a client."

Frey's story about drug addiction and recovery, originally released in 2003, zoomed up The New York Times best seller list when Oprah Winfrey named it her book club selection in September 2005. But early this year, The Smoking Gun Web site challenged some parts of the book, including Frey's claim that he served a three-month stint in prison.

Frey later admitted he had spent only a few hours in jail and had fabricated or embellished other parts of "Pieces."

Evashevski said she had chosen to represent "Pieces" because "I thought the book was the most visceral and vivid description of drug addiction I had ever read."

She told Publisher Weekly she didn't believe Frey set out to con anyone and shelearned about his deception only after he called her to say thesmokinggun.comwould be running a negative story about him.

She said she had kept quiet on the debate about "Pieces," which included Frey'sappearances on CNN's "Larry King Live" and Winfrey's television shows, becauseshe wanted to let Frey speak for himself.

Winfrey telephoned King's show to express support for Frey, but days later shechallenged the author on her own show about why he "felt the need to lie" aboutthe events in his book and chastised him for betraying readers.

Frey told Winfrey he didn't think of his book as a novel, despite its fiction.

"I still think it's a memoir," he said.