Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Bright Shiny Morning
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: From fraud to plagarist.....
Summary: 1 Stars
Most reputable authors, even when writing fiction, include a list of "Suggested Books to Read", fiction's answer to a bibliography when one isn't given, as it should be in this case.
He so obviously got more than 75% of this book from other sources that I can't believe HarperCollins thought it was permissable to cover their butts by putting on the copywright page "This is a work of fiction. References to real people and locations are used fictionally. All other names, characters, and places, and all dialogues and events, are the product of the author's imagination." Oh, please.
And the mind-numbing minutae! Any English teacher would cross out 20% of the book with a red pen and mark 'filler' in the margin. Pages of names of people treated in the VA, people who are working other jobs when they want to be an actor/actress, etc. Most of the vignettes are like 'the people game'-look at a stranger and make up a story about them.
The few main characters that appeared throughout the book were never woven together, except they all lived in L.A.
He wrote about 120 pages of a 486 page book. Hopefully the authors listed on his top 10 (12 to be pretentious) list here at Amazon are reading his book and filing lawsuits.
Book Review: Good Read for Frey fans
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a great book. Especially if you are from LA and can relate to a lot of what the characters experience. Its true that a few pages are a bit too detailed and you end up skipping over some of the useless info, but as far as character relationships and story lines go- I was captivated. Read all 500 pgs in a week and wish there was more. Id like to see individual spin offs on some of the stories as well.
Good read if you enjoyed his other books... similiar style.
Book Review: Good read, page turner
Summary: 4 Stars
Nice surprise, very good book, interesting look at the lives of street people or stars in LA.
TZ
Book Review: Good, but not that good.
Summary: 3 Stars
First off I should say that I actually like James Frey as an author. A fiction author, that is. With Bright Shiny Morning he tells you in the beginning of the book that nothing in it is true, then proceeds to tell you the stories of four characters: Amberton, a movie star who's secretly gay, Esperanza, a young Mexican American woman who works for a dreadful old lady, Joe, a drunk who tries to save a meth-addicted girl, and Dylan and Maddie, a couple that leave their small town to try to start a new life in LA. Interspersed throughout the book are also various vignettes about dozens of different people and lives in LA, as well as facts about the city itself. While the book is ambitious and wide in its scope, the stories themselves are too cliche to be interesting after the first 300 pages. During most of the book I found myself asking "How many times have I seen these kinds of stories in print before?" Toward the end of the book I literally found myself skipping over much of it, as the facts and vignettes had ceased to hold any interest for me. All in all, the book is far too broad and could have been scaled back by about 200 pages. I'd be interested in Frey's future writing projects, but this book just really didn't do it for me. I'll probably sell this one on Ebay.