A Man Walks Into a Bar
At the end of the novel, James is released from rehab and picked up by his little brother. James asks his brother to take him to a bar, and because James is the most stubborn person on the planet (and because his brother, like the rest of his family, seems to be a grade-A enabler), he agrees to take him there.
That's right: Big Bro takes just-released-from-rehab Little Bro to a bar.
There, James orders a giant glass of whiskey and gives that glass the staring contest to end all staring contests.
Then he just decides not to drink it.
I have a decision to make. It's a simple decision. It has nothing to do with God or Twelve of anything other than twelve beats of my heart. Yes or not. It is a simple decision. Yes or no. (4.4.242)
So, he picks no and lives happily ever after. Easy, right?
Is this a show of James's near-inhuman level of willpower (only 2% of people succeed at rehab without using the Twelve-Step program, according to the book), or is it a slap in the face to other people who have gone through rehab, as if James is saying: "It's so easy to say no! Why didn't you just say no, you loser?"
Hold On (For One More Day)
Ah, the James Frey Rehab Method®. We have to wonder why James doesn't act like Nancy Reagan and "Just Say No" before going through all the rehab trouble if it really is just that easy.
The epilogue tells us that "James has never relapsed" (Epilogue.16), even though everyone else at the center either relapsed, went to jail, or died. Even Lilly dies: she hangs herself on the day James gets out of jail. There's only one sentence in the epilogue devoted to her, either because a) James doesn't really love Lilly after all or b) this single throwaway line is meant to make Lilly's fate seem that much worse.
Miles is the exception to the general downerishness of the epilogue. We're told he lives and has never relapsed. James probably takes credit for that—remember that scene in which James tells him to read the Tao and "tell [Leonard] you want to hear about holding on" (3.2.440)?