James Frey, who's A Million Little Pieces 'memoir' was challenged by the Smoking Gun and then un-endorsed by Oprah last week, also published My Friend Leonard in June 2005. Leonard was a major character in the first book, a mobster who called Frey his 'son' and provided help in many ways, during their stay in a rehabilitation center and after.
In the second book, Frey sees his friend and mentor regularly until, late in the book, Leonard says he is going away for a while. He remains out of touch for 18 months, then contacts Frey and asks him to visit him in his San Francisco home. There, showing signs of wasting and weakness, he reveals that he has been closeted and unsettled about his sexuality for most of his life. He says that after being diagnosed with AIDS he had decided to live the last part of his life as he wanted.
In the months he'd been absent from Frey's life, he had lived out something Frey's girlfriend Lilly had said in the first book: a second of freedom was worth more than a lifetime of bondage. He had traveled, immersed himself in art, gone to gay bars, made friends and fallen in love. He'd decided to pass up on treatments for his disease but to let it run its course.
Frey writes that Leonard finally chooses to end his life one morning, informs Frey, and sends him out to walk the dog. As Leonard and other key characters in the book are dead, the facts would be hard to discover, but the inside title page includes the disclaimer 'Some names and identifying characteristics have been changed. Some sequences and details of events have been changed.'
Note: Publicity materials with the book say that A Million Little Pieces is being made into a film produced by Brad Pitt, John Wells, and Warner Brothers.