Bright Shiny Morning
by James Frey
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Book Reviews of Bright Shiny Morning
Book Review: Witty, involving, deeply moving, hilarious, shocking, rewarding . . .
Summary: 5 Stars
The book arrived Saturday morning, 500 pages! Saturday evening I thought I'd better make a start, I read a few of hours but must get some sleep. Sunday morning I pick it up again - Sunday lunch time I closed the book - phew! - is it finished so soon?
It is a story and many stories - of the people of Los Angeles. Four major stories run at frequent intervals throughout the book, each centred on and individual or couple, they are self contained and never interconnect. In addition there are the stories of numerous other Los Angeles residents; some run to many pages while others might be covered in just a few, a paragraph or just a line. Finally there is the story of Los Angeles itself, facts, figures, events and stories about the city, which along with the four main stories runs throughout the book (although a disclaimer warns the reader not to trust anything in the book).
The four main stories:
Amberton and his wife have the perfect family; they are both film stars at the top of their profession, adored by all. But their happy marriage is a cover for they are both gay, and the arrangement provides cover which allows them to follow their inclinations in private. All is well until Amberton meets ex-football star Kevin, big, black and irresistible. Amberton is in love, but will the path of love be smooth?
Esperanza is the only daughter of Mexican immigrants. She is intelligent, shy, and attractive, but she has big thighs. To finance her education she works as a cleaner for a wealthy but demanding and unappreciative widow. She has been chaste and not found true love, but when the wealthy widow's chubby and cheerful son returns home will Esperanza's fortune change?
Dylan and Maddie are teenage runaways, seeking to make a new life for themselves having each escaped abusive parents. They are deeply in love, but is that enough to see them through all the trials before them?
Joe is lives on the streets, or more precisely the floor of a washroom, his fellow tramps consider him wise, but he questions his lot in life.
Altogether it makes for a most fascinating read. Interesting, witty, involving, funny, deeply moving, entertaining, hilarious, shocking, informative, sad, rewarding, enlightening; I was captivated from the start, and Mr Frey cleverly maintains interest with frequent cliff-hangers as each story unfolds and finally reaches is conclusion; sometimes the protagonists come out of their ordeals well, but not always. But more importantly he has created numerous interesting characters about whom we care. Combined with that his no-nonsense yet appealing prose, which ranges from a quick-fire delivery to more intimate passages, holds the readers attention from start to finish.
I have enjoyed James Frey's previous efforts, but here he has really excelled himself. Perhaps it is because while being entertaining the book also makes the reader think and question: what really matters, what is of true value, why do some seem to have it all while others have nothing?- Highly recommended.
Book Review: Bright Shiny Book
Summary: 5 Stars
Everyone remembers the controversy surrounding A Million Little Pieces, James Frey's first book. Published as a memoir, it was later revealed that much of the book was fabricated to protect those Frey wrote about.
In the end, however, the controversy doesn't matter. Frey's books A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard did what all good books should do: they evoked emotion, touched long forgotten places inside of us and inspired people to live better lives.
So despite the controversy, I was excited to get my hands on Bright Shiny Morning. I wanted the book to be wonderful, breath taking, as incredible as A Million Little Pieces. Thankfully, Bright Shiny Morning is so much more than that.
Bright Shiny Morning, Frey's first work of fiction, is a novel about people living their lives in the fast paced city of L.A. It's told in James Frey's typical breath taking, beautiful prose and pulls you right in.
The book isn't an ordinary novel as can be expected with Frey's writing. Instead of a linear narrative, we are presented with a few reoccurring characters:
Dylan and Maddie, two teenagers who are madly in love. They run away to be together and find out about the darker side of life and love too soon.
Esperanza, a Mexican American, who takes a job as a maid in the house of Ms. Campbell, a woman so mean and rude that she borders on being abusive.
Amberton Parker, famous award winning actor who hides a secret so incredible that it could ruin his career if it was released.
Joe, a homeless man, who befriends a fifteen year old girl who is new to the streets and addicted to meth.
Sprinkled through out their stories are vignettes of other people, other characters who fill the city streets. As well, we learn factoids about Los Angels, about the city that serves not only as a backdrop for this novel but is essentially the largest character in the book.
James Frey has penned no mere novel. Instead he has given us one of the most intense studies of human nature. In this book is pure emotion sprawled across the page for us to read and it almost seems unseemly, looking into the characters lives as we do.
What I love most about Frey's writing is that it's real, it evokes emotion, it haunts you after you've turned the last page and closed the book. This is the true power of the written word, the ability to stay with the reader after the book is finished.
Frey has this in spades.
In Bright Shiny Morning, Frey proves that he is not only the subject of controversy. He is a writer and a true wordsmith. Bright Shiny Morning is, hands down, one of the best novels I have ever read. Ever.
If you haven't read this yet, what are you waiting for? You have no idea what you're missing.
Book Review: Frey is not just a one trick pony
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm a big fan of Frey's debut `novel' A Million Little Pieces. I wasn't especially surprised to learn that much of his memoir had been fabricated and frankly it did nothing to diminish my opinion of it (except perhaps to raise it a little - after all, writing good fiction can be more difficult than reciting a true story in many ways) His second novel, My Friend Leonard, was a disappointing, weak effort, and I wondered if perhaps Frey would turn out to be a one trick pony and fade into obscurity.
But Bright Shiny Morning is a great, unconventional novel. It's protagonist - the City of Los Angeles. The novel is comprised of three parts: 1) Four separate story lines that run throughout the novel and never connect with one another 2) Interesting facts and tidbits about the City of Angels - sometimes in the form of a short paragraph, sometimes running for numerous pages 3) Short vignettes, usually consistent with a theme, often introduced through a series of interesting facts about LA (ie: young people who move to LA with stars in their eyes, only to have their dreams crushed over time). There is no single over riding story. This is a novel about LA, what it represents to the people who flock there and the reality of its mirage.
Frey has a unique writing style that works. The dialogue is sharp and Frey peppers his prose with caustic humour. As I read the novel, I anticipated disappointment at the conclusion. After all, how do you wrap up a novel that is made up of so many unrelated storylines and still have it feel complete? Frey surprised me. I was very satisfied with the ending. Each of the four main storylines is wrapped up in a way that suggests that life goes on, but each story still felt complete. The final vignette, about a brain damaged man wandering the streets of LA, effectively ties the novel together and the final few pages sum up the novel nicely.
As for criticisms: The four main storylines do feature characters that are stereotypical. The narcissistic movie actor who is secretly gay, two naive young lovers who escape rural small town America, a shy Mexican American maid who falls in love with the rich son of her employer, and the homeless man with a heart of gold who tries to help a drug addicted teenage girl. While stereotypical, Frey does give them their own voices. The other criticism is that some of the LA 'fact sections' run on much too long. Pages and pages of the names of soldiers injured in combat, pages and pages describing all of the highways in greater LA and so on.
The criticisms are minor though. I was thoroughly entertained by this novel. Frey is clearly not just a one trick pony.
Book Review: Another Frey Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
It's no secret that I'm a long-time James Frey fan. Before he was O-famous, he and I emailed several times, and I'm privileged to have an autographed copy of A Million Little Pieces. I was excited when I learned he was coming out with a new novel, and pre-ordered it months ahead on Amazon.com.
I knew I wasn't going to read another Little Pieces story, but having read the editor's description of the book before ordering, I wasn't sure what I was going to read. And now I know that the editor probably had a hard time describing this book because it is so unique that it almost defies description.
Just like A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard, Bright Shiny Morning pulls you into its pages and won't let you go even after you've read every word. Frey does an excellent job in building characters you truly feel like you know, though you also come to understand you probably wouldn't even glance at them if you walked by them on the street, with the exception of the world famous actor. He tells many stories in this book - and though the characters of each story aren't connected, he manages to connect them through his ability to make you care about each individual. He uses the history of Los Angeles almost like "rest areas" between these stories -- he bounces back and forth between scenarios and characters and just when you can't wait to learn what happens next, he throws in new characters in smaller vignettes that have nothing to do with what you've already read, but just gives you more and more to savor and contemplate.
Now I understand why his publishing house had such a difficult time describing this book. It sounds SO complicated and fractured, but trust me, it's not. It is a totally unique piece of fiction and another Frey masterpiece. It is probably unlike anything you've ever read before, and certainly unlike any of the ho-hum out-of-new-ideas-but-still-a-bestselling-author titles currently on the bestseller list. This book is currently #52 on Amazon's list, but it's definitely #1 on mine.
Buy this book. I believe you'll probably still be able to buy a 1st Edition, 1st printing copy. Read it. Savor it. Then put it away. At some point in time James Frey is going to gain the acceptance and recognition from the literary world that he so deserves, and you're going to have a collector's item on your hands. Trust me on this one. The O-crap may have made him temporarily famous, but his unique writing style and storytelling are going to make him a Pulitzer Prize winner at some point. It's just a matter of time.
Book Review: Dusty Dark Prose
Summary: 3 Stars
I have not read Frey's other books (not because of the recent bad press, but was just not interested). However, I was intrigued by Bright Shiny Morning. I love stories about Los Angeles, and themes about people struggling in that setting. I lived in Southern Cal. ten years ago, and kind of can relate to the struggle. I read some decent reviews; I saw him on various news programs, and felt I would give his latest book a read.
I read it with an opened mind. I enjoyed it, hated it, and probably wished I hadn't bought it. Here's the thing: if Frey would have published this a hundred years ago, it would have been cutting-edge literature. Chances are, it would have not been published 100 years ago because of its bad language. But Frey would have been catapulted to literary fame. Eventually. Like Melville. The thing is that Joyce, Woolf, and Faulkner have already done the run-on sentences, subconscious prose, to suggest the feeling of the characters' minds on the page. Reading this at the beginning was fine, and it was interesting. I was hooked. The device still works, but for 500 pages?!
Well, I shouldn't say 500 pages, because Frey does a hell of a job mixing in facts here. We are bombarded with lists. I mean lists of things! For example, soldiers who have lost limbs in Iraq and even in Vietnam; people in L.A. and New York who strive to be an artist but find themsevles working low-end jobs. It's interesting, appealing to the story, and it serves its purpose to create that ambience of disillusion that L.A. often creates for people (especially those who want to be in the entertainment business).
The book does its job of moving the reader along, and it is not as tough to read as some people have suggested. It just gets kind of annoying after awhile. Not sure about other readers, but I could never really latch onto one or two characters, like you can in most novels. It felt as though I was just reading about their lives, and "list of lives." There was really no story arc, either. There's drama, and Frey does a good job at writing the nuances of people in limbo. In fact, there's probably no other contemporary writer today who nails the jest of people's sudden decline as they get sucked into the demoralization of their environment.
And that is what Bright Shiny Morning does: the reader is part of that demoralization and is left sucked away. If that is what Frey aimed to achieve in this book, he did a good job. If he was trying to reinvent himself or fiction, it did not succeed.