Customer Reviews

Bright Shiny Morning [With Headphones]

5 star:		(96)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

I was the first to get the book from my local Barnes and Nobles and I know this because they told me this--I read a lot. I read Austen and Bronte. I read Hemingway and Faulkner. I read Mailer and Vidal. I read I read I read. You'll have to trust me when I say that I consider myself a literate person, a published writer, and a harsh and unbearable critic--of self and others--and I haven't read all of Bright Shiny Morning yet. I have read four hundred and ten pages of it. With the negative reviews that are to follow, I figured a partial review on my favorite place to buy books online would be appropriate to thin out what will surely be many an unjust review. Let's put aside that he's an embellisher in his memoirs (I could care less). Let's focus solely on the novel at hand. Let's start with the negatives.

Two Teens runaway from home to start a life together. (Cliche)
A blockbuster actor married to a beautiful woman is really gay. (Cliche)
A spanish nanny with a deformity who starts a relationships with the son of a client. (Cliche)
A homeless man who befriends a runaway. (Most assuredly cliche)
The writing is shoddily punctuated, annoyingly incomplete, and choppy. (You look and have to make sure you read it right).
The language is rough. (Constant swearing, difficult to read material)
The vignette excursions are sometimes annoying, sometimes interesting, sometimes boring, sometimes a miss, and sometimes a hit. (Some worked in the book, other's probably could've been left out).

Now I'll tell you why none of these negatives matter.

The cliche story lines could kill a book if not so beautifully put together that you become engrossed in the characters--the characters become the originals in a story that's been told a thousand times.
The writing is all his own. It's reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. It flares with an immediacy not seen in books anymore--or rarely seen in books anymore. The excursions from the story are necessary because without them, you don't get the major character, which is, LA. LA rings as the focal character, a land and place all its own that rings true to the world around us, the focal point for the American dream, the focal point for hope and decadance, the focal point for stardom and fame, the focal point for what drives American's home lives to the television each day, the focal point for these characters existence, the focal point for life in a sense.

I ask, and I hope, my only hope, that you who are angry at James Frey, let it go, and don't try and crush the book simply because you feel lied to. A believable lie, after all, is what good fiction is made out of, for if he could suspend disbelief well enough for us to believe everything in his memoir's (that he didn't even want to call memoirs, mind you, it's labeled, Memoir/Literature), he certainly suspends disbelief in bringing to life the characters. You will feel their pain and their defeats, their victories and their happines, at least to where I've read to. I don't know about the rest of the book... but he's never been one for the crapped out ending, so I'm quite sure. Buy it, you'll love it. If you don't buy it and you don't read it, then just don't write a review, for a review is not how you feel about the author, it's how you feel about the work he put out into the world, so be mature, grow up, and read a good book from a unique and new voice in the world of literature.

This book was bought primarily because I felt bad about the crucifiction he faced with dignity on Oprah and I wanted to be supportive. I had not read any of his other works and was amazed at the raw soaring talent displayed within this book. I was enthralled from the first word to the last. Frey is an amazing writer and I will now buy everything he writes with eager anticipation..much like Poe, the reader knows without a doubt, that the writer has lived his story in some fashion, to make it so true to those who have and have not been there. In that equality lies the miracle. Mary W. Black, Flagstaff, AZ

500 pages in two sittings. I opened the book and was immersed in an utterly amazing character study, not of a person, but of a place, a city, a metropolis so vast and varied and unforgiving. A place of dreams and disasters. Of beauty an inch deep and a mile wide. Frey's depiction of L.A. is a masterpiece. But is it really a work of fiction?

I did not read Million Little Pieces, but after Oprahs ridiculous self-absorbed scene I wanted to support James and just had a feeling that he was good.

Wow. I haven't enjoyed a book this much since The Corrections. This is a great book. JAMES FREY IS A BLESSING TO THIS WORLD.

I want to preface this review by saying that I am one of those people who couldn't care less if James Frey or his publishers (or whomever) called his first book, A Million Little Pieces, a memoir. The fact that is was a great piece of literature -- terrific story, great writing, and a truly compelling read -- is all that should matter at the end of the day. His next book, My Friend Leonard, was at least as good, if not better, and more than proved that James Frey was not a one-hit-wonder.

With that being said, I now want to gush about Bright Shiny Morning. No, it's not the least bit uplifting and it covers dark topics that many of us wish we could ignore. BUT...but the story is so well-told that you won't be able to put the book down...you will want to know what happens to each character, and why. You will be so instantly engrossed that even the unbelievably breathtaking views of the Caribbean will not cause you to lift your head up from the pages of this book. At least that was my experience.

READ IT! Then share with others. You won't be sorry.

When James Frey crashed and burned after a Million Little Pieces (which was a work of art) and was exposed as being a fictional book rather than an autobiography, I was crushed (because frankly, I could care less where the story came from). The book was brilliant and so was the author. He's back, and with a vengeance. This novel is genius, pure and simple. The facts mixed with fiction mixed with history combined with the reality of the characters' lives is golden. Do we not love Maddie and Dylan? Do we not ache for Old Man Joe, and hope upon hope, for Esperanza to fulfill the American Dream? Sickened and saddened by Amberton and Casey, Los Angeles at its finest! I love the story of the gossip columnist whom I suspected (I just had to research this one)and correctly so, was Perez Hilton. This is a magnificent story not to be missed; I wait with anticipation for his next novel to be published.

This novel is a real mixed bag. Juvenile, cliched and unoriginal- yet it creeps in under your skin and you can't help but be hooked. Just read it- everyone is going to have a different opinion and you won't have yours until you do.

Not great literature, but a reasonably entertaining page turner with a melange of interesting characters--some of whom seem very familiar since the depravity of the Hollywood/LA scene is not a very new concept. The chapters are relatively short and are interspersed with "facts" about the early development of Los Angeles and a myriad of facts about the characteristics of its inhabitants. These I could have done without since they detracted from the main plotlines and impressed me as simply filler.

Absolutely loved this book. James Frey is an awesome author and I hope people will give him a second chance because this book is worth it. Loved it Loved it Loved it!!!!!

I applaud James Frey's attempt to create an innovative and stylish look at the City of Angels but the book rings hollow. The laundry list of innocuous of items becomes tiring the deeper you get into the book. I became very bored and even irate at the over emphasis of the same message of people going west and facing dissappointment. The loose ends of all of the story lines don't get tied up before he introduces another character. Better luck next time.