Bright Shiny Morning
by James Frey
List Price:
Our Price: $1.40
You Save: $25.55 (95%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: James FreyEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-05-13
ISBN: 0061573132
Number of pages: 512
Publisher: Harper
Book Reviews of Bright Shiny Morning
Book Review: Not so much, Mr. Frey
Summary: 2 Stars
I liked 'A Million Little Pieces.' Even after I discovered that most of it was composed of lies. And I liked 'My Friend Leonard' as well. For what it was...the storytelling skill was there and they were both interesting enough to keep some momentum.
But I have to say that after looking at the overall star rating for this book, I'll never trust an Amazon rating again. It's disheartening to say the least that the first review listed is horrible yet it appears to have received the highest rating. If one were bold enough, one might suggest that Mr. Frey himself had written it. You know the style:
I read. I read and I read and I don't stop reading have to read. I speak. I am an intellect. I have read Faulkner, Hemmingway, I have read Camus and Sartre and all of the books their girlfriends wrote, letters, many letters and I keep reading.
Come on. Seriously.
I'll put it in very plain and simple terms why this book failed and why it does indeed read like a book that was written to fulfill a contractual obligation and nothing more. And to the zealots out there, I have nothing against Mr. Frey. I've already stated that I liked his previous efforts so back up. For real.
I honestly get the feeling that those reviewers who are swarming to defend this guy have such blind faith that they'd give 5 stars to anything Frey might scribble on the back of a cocktail napkin. Not a used cocktail napkin (he doesn't drink, you see...he's an addict. He's an addict, a criminal and a liar, by his own admission).
So anyway, this book fails on just about every level. It's like listening to stories told by a schizophrenic. And not in a good way.
Plots jump in an and out, tangled up by facts, figures, random entries, more random facts, good random facts, bad random facts...all about LA. There is no fluidity to any of the tales. It's like listening to someone with a speak impediment or a huge stutter tell a story that takes several days to tell. And by the time you hear the ending, you're so over the whole process that you care very little about the plot, the characters or the situations at all.
He thanks Ellis in the credits of the book. What Frey tried to do unsuccessfully was to capture a kind of 'Rules of Attraction' formula that just didn't work. Plain and simple.
IT DID NOT WORK in terms of literary composition. It didn't. I don't care what anyone says. I'm a reader. I read. That's what I do. Sometimes I teach from books and I teach about books and I teach and I teach.
(Sorry. Couldn't resist).
The huge downtime between the individual stories allows for the bodies to grow cold before you even have a chance to get to care about the characters at all. You're in. You're out. Two pages in, four pages in. Ten pages out. Back in.
I see what Frey was trying to do. I really do. It just didn't work. Plain and simple. I love books and I never skip pages of them, regardless of how bad they develop. I skipped all of the 'facts' pages. I skipped the random Camus journal-esque entries that had nothing to do with anything. I skipped quite a bit in fact because there simply wasn't enough there to make it interesting.
In the end, I felt had. Very had. Worse than after I learned that AMLP was fabricated.
I felt like I'd wasted several nights when I could have been reading something that I might have enjoyed. I was disappointed that Frey's first 'novel' was so confused and incoherent at times. I thought he might come out, guns blazing and prove the critics of his previous books wrong.
He didn't. Not with this effort. Not even close.
What we get (in a nutshell and without giving much away) is a Red Hot Chili Peppers 'Californication' mixed heavily with 'Hollywood Babylon.' Mix gingerly and serve chilled.
We get it. People are drawn to LA because of stars. There are a lot of drugs out there. There is a lot of sex, a lot of prostitution. A lot of broken dreams. If you are impressed or surprised by any of that, by all means pick up the book. If you liked the song, 'Californication' and thought it was deep or revealing, then by all means pick this book up.
It simply doesn't reveal anything. It simply repeats facts, tosses out random notes, reminds people that bad things are bad and bad things happen to good people in bad situations. Honestly. That's it. That's as deep and revealing as this novel gets.
I also couldn't shake the feeling that Frey has forgotten his voice since being publicly called out on AMLP. He's channeling a lot of different writers in this. He no longer has a signature feel to his writing except, of course, the run-on sentences and the exasperation that is supposed to help us feel the excitement or anxiety of his characters. And unfortunately, that's no longer enough to keep these weak plots afloat.
I particularly couldn't help but think about the film 'Magnolia' as I read through 'BSM.' If you've seen the movie and read (waded) through the book, you know what I mean.
It just doesn't work. It simply doesn't. And I'll debate anyone who thinks it does and accuse them of blindly following someone who touched them with an earlier, much better, much more successful effort in AMLP.
I read. I've read a lot of books. I read and I read and I read. I read Faulkner. I read Hemmingway. I read Camus and Sartre and all of the books that their girlfriends ever wrote. I read. I have to.
I read this book and found nothing interesting, revealing, insightful, moving or successful within in. Unfortunately. I wanted to like it. I did. I'm a reader. I read and I read an I read.
I'm never reading this again. It was a gigantic waste of time. And if this is what American literature has come to, looks like we're losing that battle along with all the other battles we've lost recently as a nation.
It just doesn't work.
Summary of Bright Shiny Morning
One of the most celebrated and controversial authors in America delivers his first novel?a sweeping chronicle of contemporary Los Angeles that is bold, exhilarating, and utterly original.
Dozens of characters pass across the reader's sight lines?some never to be seen again?but James Frey lingers on a handful of LA's lost souls and captures the dramatic narrative of their lives: a bright, ambitious young Mexican-American woman who allows her future to be undone by a moment of searing humiliation; a supremely narcissistic action-movie star whose passion for the unattainable object of his affection nearly destroys him; a couple, both nineteen years old, who flee their suffocating hometown and struggle to survive on the fringes of the great city; and an aging Venice Beach alcoholic whose life is turned upside down when a meth-addled teenage girl shows up half-dead outside the restroom he calls home.
Throughout this strikingly powerful novel there is the relentless drumbeat of the millions of other stories that, taken as a whole, describe a city, a culture, and an age. A dazzling tour de force, Bright Shiny Morning illuminates the joys, horrors, and unexpected fortunes of life and death in Los Angeles.
Literature & Fiction Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literature & Fiction Books
Little Womenby Louisa May Alcott
Scribner; Published: 1986-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
The Killing Groundby JACK HIGGINS
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS LTD; Published: 2007; Hardcover; Book
Saving Fish from Drowningby Amy Tan
4th Estate; Published: 2005; Paperback; Book
Life Expectancyby Dean Koontz
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Constant Princessby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone/Simon & Schuster; Published: 2005; Hardcover; Book
Wolf of the Plains (Conqueror, Book 1)by Conn Iggulden
Harper; Published: 2007; Paperback; Book
Saharaby Clive Cussler
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2005-03-21; Paperback; Book
Perelandra (Cosmic Trilogy)by C. S. Lewis
Voyager; Published: 2005-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.85
Price in other shops:
The Lord Of The Rings: Part 2 The Two Towersby J. R. R. Tolkien
Harper Collins Publishers; Published: 2001; Paperback; Book
Red Marsby Kim Stanley Robinson
Trafalgar Square; Published: 2001-06; Paperback; Book
Similar Books and other products
A Million Little Pieces (Paperback)by James Frey (Author)
Published: 2005; Unknown Binding; Book
Best price: $6.03
A Million Little Piecesby James Frey
Nan A. Talese; Published: 2003-04-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.94
Price in other shops:
Gift of the White Light: The Strange and Wonderful Story of Annette Martin, Psychicby James N. Frey
Linden Publishing; Published: 2008-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.35
Price in other shops:
Tropic of Cancerby Henry Miller
Grove Press; Published: 1994-01-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.97
Price in other shops:
Final Testament of the Holy BibleHodder Export; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.88
My Friend Leonardby James Frey
Riverhead Trade; Published: 2006-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.86
Price in other shops:
The Final Testament of the Holy Bibleby James Frey
Gagosian Gallery; Published: 2011-04-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $45.00
Price in other shops:
A Million Little Piecesby James Frey
Anchor; Published: 2005-09-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.54
Price in other shops:
A Piece of Cake: A Memoirby Cupcake Brown
Broadway; Published: 2007-04-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.97
Price in other shops:
My Friend Leonardby James Frey
Riverhead Hardcover; Published: 2005-06-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.98
Price in other shops: