50 pages • 1 hour read
A Million Little Pieces
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Epigraph-Chapter 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: The source material contains references to addiction, substance use, sexual violence, rape, physical abuse, suicidal ideation, and self-harm.
Epigraph Summary
A poem describes a conversation between a young man and an old man. The young man says he has broken something into “a million little pieces” (1). The old man responds that it is “broken beyond repair” (1).
Chapter 1 Summary
Twenty-three-year-old James wakes on a flight to Chicago with facial injuries and four missing teeth. He has no idea how he got there. At the airport, James is greeted by his concerned parents, Lynne and Bob Frey, who live in Japan. They explain that James’s friend called them, revealing their son had fallen down a fire escape and needed help to recover from his addictions.
Chapter 2 Summary
Lynne and Bob pay for their son to attend an addiction treatment facility in Minnesota. When James checks in, he learns the clinic’s most important rules: patients cannot use drugs or alcohol, and male residents cannot interact with female residents.
James tells the medical staff that he uses alcohol, cocaine, and several other addictive substances. When asked about the quantities he consumes, he replies “As much as I can” (10).
James quickly experiences withdrawal symptoms. He shivers, sweats, and hallucinates that bugs are crawling over his body and biting him.
