James Frey pens 'The Final Testament of the Holy Bible'

By Deirdre Donahue, USA TODAY

James Frey, the cleverest show pony on the media carousel, is ready to prance again this spring.

• 

  By Terry Richardson

  James Frey is back with a new book, 'The Final Testament,' released on Good Friday.

By Terry Richardson

James Frey is back with a new book, 'The Final Testament,' released on Good Friday.

Today ? Good Friday ? he releases a deliberately outrageous new book, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible. Thanks to Oprah Winfrey's recent invitation, he'll probably be promoting it on her couch next month.

No doubt both hope his return visit will equal the media fireworks set off in 2006 when Winfrey castigated Frey for lying in A Million Little Pieces, his "memoir" about drug addiction.

Attention-seeking doesn't begin to describe TheFinalTestament. In Frey's modern-day presentation, the Son of God is a Manhattan security guard named Ben who denounces faith, religion, the Bible, the afterlife, heaven, sin and pretty much all traditional concepts of God.

The Final Testament of the Holy Bible

By James Frey

Ebook edition, $9.99

Hardcover edition: $50 (Gagosian Gallery)

Instead, God is love, physical love, according to Ben, who goes out to heal the world one sexual encounter at a time, though sometimes with more than one partner, among them fat lonely women, self-hating gay men and crack- addicted lap dancers. When Ben and his followers gather in secret at an upstate farm, they share the love with the kind of uninhibited variety not seen since Plato's Retreat closed.

Ben tells the faithful that not only is religion false, it has caused almost all the world's misery, pointing specifically at white American evangelical Christians and the Catholic Church.

Believers, ignore him. Frey is yanking your chain to sell books. Already published in the UK, Testament has received some good reviews there. Probably because it confirms many nonbelievers' conviction that much of this country is one big David Koresh/Branch Davidian nest of sects and racism. No fatwa for Frey ? he steers clear of mocking Islam.

With each chapter and character, Frey blasts away at easy stereotypes and cliches til the whole book stinks like a barrel of dead fish. "Luke" is an ex-racist, anti-Semitic, Ole Miss frat boy turned crack addict. The Catholic priest "Mark" is a sex-starved husk who worships a piece of wood until Ben awakens him.

Black and Puerto Rican characters are equally clich�d but with added soupcon of liberal pity. "Matthew" is a homeless, rage-filled black man forever spouting the F word. "Mariaangles" is a 19-year-old single mom/prostitute/druggie whose addiction Ben heals with sex.

No matter whether you believe or not, by the end of this boring, predictable book, you'll feel you've suffered fiction's version of Stations of the Cross.

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more.

Rachael Leigh Cook Kelly Monaco Samantha Mumba Brittany Murphy Malin Akerman