|
Bright Shiny Morning | 
 enlarge | Author: James Frey
Publisher: Harper
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $11.93
You Save: $15.02 (56%)
New (61) Used (36) Collectible (8) from $8.81
Avg. Customer Rating:  125 reviews
Sales Rank: 7306
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.9 x 1.7
ISBN: 0061573132
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780061573132
ASIN: 0061573132
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW - EXCEPTIONAL VALUE - EXCELLENT BUY
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
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: Read 120 more reviews...
Wonderfully Different September 21, 2008
I was at first taken aback by the unusual writing style and the fact that the story seemed to jump around, but soon grew comfortable and found that the book flowed beautifully for me. The author skillfully weaves the history of Los Angeles with the lives of a variety of current-day residents. I highly recommend this book.
Good read, page turner September 19, 2008
Nice surprise, very good book, interesting look at the lives of street people or stars in LA.
TZ
I still like James September 15, 2008
i have long waited for james new book after reading his 'memoir' the million pieces and leonard book. it's a very different thing but i still like it
it's about LA, i can see there are lots of research and ground work done
but...it's the message it's bringing out touches me still
colors, races, dreams, destruction, lust, obsession, love, abuse, violence...which cities do not have these elements, but LA seeems to have an exagerrating amount of these adding all up
james bring it to our attention and in a very vivid way
he is so good at bringing us VIVID pictures through words
i want to read his 4th books
 A Dull Pennysworth of Cliches September 13, 2008
Frey is yet another easterner--Cleveland born, NYC resident--who finds the need to tell us Angelinos what we're about. Only he's brought nothing new to the party. Some reviewers have already pointed out the most egregious cliches. But the worst of them are not only cliched, but essentially false. E.g., a transplanted New Yorker brought west to run an art gallery is run over crossing the street by an MTA bus because the driver "wasn't used to seeing pedestrians". When we lived in Hollywood, my wife worked in the North Valley and had to use our only car. I walked. All over. I even used public trans(!). Never got run over. Not even close. One of the first things drivers in Cali are taught is that pedestrians *always* have the right of way, crosswalk or no.
I've lived for the past 15 years in NYC. Here I've come a lot, lot closer to getting run down, both as pedestrian and bicyclist (in fact I got hit twice while bicycling). Pedestrians have a far, far more problematic relationship with motorists than in LA.
Another point of contention is that hoariest of assertions: "It calls. It calls. It calls!"
Really?
How 'bout NYC? It calls (I run into a tankload of Angelinos and other Californians here). So does Chicago. So does any major metropolitan center. Frey is just showing off his regionalism here.
Other points that may seem niggling demonstrate disrespect for basic facts: e.g. according to Frey you can buy a handgun one day and pick it up the next in LA. That's not true. There's been a 14 day waiting period for handgun purchases in California since shortly after RFK's murder.
Frey's style is interesting, but he has yet to master the minimalist punctuation the way Cormac McCarthy has. In Morning it's more of a nuisance than a means of improving flow.
Andy
 A few interesting parts September 10, 2008
I found most of the book to be self involved and uninteresting, but perhaps that was the point since it was about LA. There were about 3 story lines I was interested in , and I did skim thru the book to read about those characters. Otherwise I found most of it bland and banal , with the story lines just above a Danielle Steel novel.
The most annoying thing was , when I was recently in Britain , I saw an interview with James Frey on the BBC. He explained that some of the "facts" about LA , that begin many of the chapters, are entirely made up , and false. It seems someone has a wee bit of problem with the truth.
|
|
|
Copyright 2008 - RailroadBookstore.com
| |
