Customer Reviews

Fame Junkies: The Hidden Truths Behind America's Favorite Addiction

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

An outstanding critique of the celebrity-obsessed subculture that has permeated American life, with some sobering thoughts about why so many people, especially teen-aged girls, have lost their focus on what is real, what is important, and what is really important. This book brings to mind the old Roman proverb about the necessity of providing the masses with "bread and circuses".

A must read for every student of modern American culture and sociology. Parents of teenage children should also peruse this book, if for no other reason than to understand why their daughters prefer People magazine to Scientific American, and their sons watch professional wrestling rather than the evening news.

I picked this book up after seeing the long ABC 20/20 segment on it and was hooked within minutes. Jake Halpern unveils the strange and wild obsessions people have with fame. I read his previous book, Braving Home, as well, and immensely enjoyed his writing style. Just like Braving Home, Fame Junkies is a rollicking good read, with compelling characters, situations and insights. I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended.

This incoherent mess of a book is from a supposedly intellectual guy who came up with what he thought was a clever idea to sell to editors (why we like fame) and then brought together a bunch of unrelated subjects without truly doing serious homework on the subject. He doesn't adequately define what he means by fame, selects random facts and stories that often don't relate to the topic (at one point discussing alcoholism?) and doesn't seem to even understand some of the people he is writing about.

His introduction chapter is a bizarre mish-mash of stream-of-consciousness ramblings about "fame" or "celebrity." Instead of using it to define his topic and explain what the book is about, he concludes (from what I can figure out) that the world has had famous people since the caveman days and that it may all be tied to an addiction trigger in the brain. If that doesn't make sense to you, then it makes even less sense when reading the book.

The author doesn't really address the title topic and picks some odd subjects instead. A small-town talent agent. A Hollywood bus tour. A Pittsburgh woman who wants Rod Stewart to have a star on the Walk of Fame. An actors' retirement home. These are all peripheral to fame and don't explain why we're a society of fame junkies. It's like he focuses on clever sideshows and not the main stage--if he were writing about the popularity of the Ringling Brothers circus, he would do a story on the person selling cotton candy and the guy cleaning the elephant cage instead of telling us what was going on in the three rings or why we like to watch the trapeze act!

In one chapter he tries to bring spirituality into it but falters since he seems to have a drive-by view of Christianity. He merely quotes more statistics and creates a false picture of religion in society. Then he abandons it completely to finish the chapter by focusing on the woman who "worships" Rod Stewart. It just doesn't make sense.

Since he is a New York Times contributor and an NPR writer/producer, this seems like an accumulation of public-radio style stories that deal with a topic without truly covering it in any depth (and the positive reviews for this book must be coming from similar East Coast Sunday Times magazine readers who think it's brilliant to have someone write about a subject that they know nothing about). It was more of a chance for him to have an excuse to interview a few people he admires (the Edge from U2!). He thinks of himself as very clever yet he never really says anything of substance. In the end you won't know much more about why we're fame junkies than when you started.

This is a terrific ,intelligently written exploration of our fame obsessed culture...Entertaining, engaging book that was simply hard to put down. I am a psychiatric nurse, and I really enjoyed authors' use of newer psychological theories to explain the fenomena of fame obsession.I am passing this book to my friends at work.

I loved this book and finished it within days ... even though I have a young baby and not much time!

Reading Fame Junkies allows you to be a fly on the wall in all kinds of interesting places, from modeling & talent conventions to the Hollywood apartment complex where hopeful child would-be-stars live with their parents. The book is really a collection of fascinating stories. This is journalism at its best; Halpern gets his subjects to say all kinds of funny and (sometimes unknowingly) insightful things. My favorite: Halpern asks one guy so many questions that he finally snaps, "Where are you from, kid -- Buffalo?" Of course, Halpern *is* from Buffalo.

And the topic could not be more timely: large percentages of young people long for fame, and value being a celebrity over many more worthwhile things like being a leader in their community or being the CEO of a company. After all, we live in a world where kids are constantly told they can "be anything" and are "special." Many of them want to be celebrities, though it's hard to imagine why. So the book is a cautionary tale as well -- we need to think of a way to stop the fame obsession before it gets any worse.

This book presents a shocking commentary about our celebrity obsessed culture and the ramifications for our children. This preoccuption is not benign but one that should be understood. Fame Junkies opens an insightful window on the world that we rarely step back to examine.

We are in the midst of a cultural shift where fame and celebrity are becoming central goals for many young people. Mr. Halpern does a wonderful job exploring the psychology behind fame-seeking. He also introduces the reader to several interesting subcultures where fame-seeking is paramount.

In his debut book, Braving Home, Journalist Jake Halpern examined the motivations and eccentricities of people who live under extreme circumstances (in active lava flows, in an abandoned, flooded town, or in a canyon fire zone, for example). His second effort focuses that same personal curiosity and research skill on American's "fame junkies," those obsessed with the celebrity culture and with their chance at being discovered and becoming the center of attention.

Halpern takes the reader to children's talent conventions (complete with a thousand-dollar-plus admission fee for the children and parents), to the world of Celebrity Personal Assistants (CPAs) and members of the celebrity entourage, and finally to the average American's obsession with all things celebrity, from the tabloid newsweeklies to the tour books for finding celebrity homes. Halpern's skill lies in his ability to connect with his subjects, in his compassion for others, and he portrays the majority of his interview subjects as generally likeable, regular folks with ambitions that not all of us share.

The highlight of the book, The Rochester Survey, appears early on. Halpern co-authored a study to determine what priority teenage girls place on celebrity vs. other forms of satisfaction or potential career placement, and the results are disturbing. The chapter on talent conventions inevitably contains research data on the effect of decades of self-esteem boosting in America's schools and the higher tendency towards narcissistic thought among the current generation.

His most important observation is woven throughout the entire narrative. Even those who study popular culture in academia, or who have the power to scout talent and select wannabe actors for chances at fame, are guilty of fame-obsession themselves. They thrive on being important, being recognized, and getting their time in the spotlight, just as they judge the actions of others who do the same.

While Halpern's research is thorough and his personal stories are engaging, this is no end-all study on the modern fame culture, and it fails to be as compelling as his debut work, if only because the personal connections he made with fame wannabes fail to be as breathtaking as those he made with people living in extreme environments. This is an above-average read, but I hope Halpern finds more magical subject matter for his next book.

This well-written, meticulously researched account of our celebrity-obsessed society demonstrates why we are so enamored with fame. Of particular interest are the individual stories, the interviews with psychologists and the survey taken of our children's view of celebrities.

This book makes one aware of one's consumption of the celebrity culture. I've reduced my intake of celebrity news since reading it and want to reduce it further!