Author:James Frey Binding: Hardcover Published: 2008-05-13 ISBN: 0061573132 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
"I hated this book"
"I enjoyed it!"
"Stunning portrait of Los Angeles"
"Haven't read something that moved me this much in a long time..."
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Editorial Review:
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.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
I hated this book I hate this book. I don't say this very often. I've read thousands of books in my life, from Burgess to Bradbury, from Starship Troopers to The Sun Also Rises. But I have never had cause to hate a book before. I truly despised Bright Shiny Morning. The feeling it left me with was disjointed despair. Imagine you are a kid in a classroom. The teacher asks you a question. You give the wrong answer. She smacks you on the head with a wooden ruler. You are asked another question. You're right this time. She... more info
I enjoyed it! While maybe not 5-star material (it didn't change my life, give me a new perspective, or make me think about it for weeks after I finished) I found the novel entertaining. But more than that, it felt REAL to me. People can moan on and on again about cliches, but really, the reason they are cliches is because these things really happen! How many of us, if we can categorize ourselves in a few sentences would turn out sounding "cliche"? I think there are three main categories of people that don't like... more info
Stunning portrait of Los Angeles Simply put, I loved this book. It is a compulsive read that will hook you from page one. It is less a novel than a group of vignettes portraying the lives of several vastly different Los Angeles citizens. The main characters include a closeted-actor whose life is a lie, a young couple fleeing life in the Mid-west only to find that LA might not be the city of dreams they thought it would be, a homeless man struggling with an alcohol addiction, and a Hispanic cleaning lady who dreams of a better future. On... more info
Haven't read something that moved me this much in a long time... I just read the last few pages (almost 500) of James Frey's newest book, 'Bright Shiny Morning', and I can't figure out what to say, or if words are even enough. Never has a book, since 'The Perks of Being A Wallflower', have I been so incredibly moved by a novel. It's novels like these that tear your heart in half and sew it back together. This novel has broken me in half. Reading it, I went through the most happiest of times, to the deepest sadness, to actually being afraid, to feeling sick, to... more info
