Customer Reviews

Welcome to Yesterday

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A real disappointment. The characters lacked any depth, the murder/mystery plot was stale as corkboard, and the dialogue felt very contrived.

The author's first book was fantastic, very visceral and real. "Welcome to Yesterday" seemed pretty empty in comparison. Wonder what happened between then and now. Reads like a totally different writer.

I didn't recognize the characters either, but to me that wasn't the driving force of the plot so it didn't matter. His first book was taught in my writing class last year and a few of us liked it so much we wrote papers on it. The storyline in this one is a guilty pleasure but the writing is so perfect it's nutritious too...

I picked this up because I met the author once when he was working for Page Six; we talked for awhile about celebrity gossip, but I never thought to ask him about exactly how these columns operate. He probably could have told me a lot: it seems he is something of a clairvoyant. Payoff scandals, a lying memoirist--it's all here. This book is a great read. The mystery is cool, there's an old-school newsroom character who's office is in the basement of a bar, and an amazing club scene that recalls the hell that was the late Lot 61. (Ok, I guess it could have been Lotus, too...)

One of the more atmospheric novels I've read in a long time, Welcome to Yesterday starts off with a bang that thrusts you into the story and the life of a gossip columnist. I don't know the players in this world, but the author does and he introduces us to some of the more remarkable and despicable of them. While telling a compelling suspense story, the book also manages to share insight into the celebrity industry and the havoc that this sort of reporting can play on a man's soul. It's a great read.

I was all set to have a great read. i'm familar with the settings and the job but i could not for life of me get past page 17. the characters are uninteresting; the plot is tedious and a bit complex, and it seems spiegelman is trying too hard to write film noirish, which he doesn't pull off. but i'm going to give it one more shot. i suspect all five star reviews here are from friends, which is okay. but the reality of the read is far different imho.

I think this is a brilliant novel by a fantastic author. Ian Spiegelman has a gift for capturing dialogue and for accurately developing characters which is unique. I have worked as a gossip columnist so I know the terrain which he brings to life and it is uncanny how dead on his depiction of the party scene and the tabloid world are in Welcome to Yesterday. The conversations he relates are searingly real. This is not a feel good book and it had a haunting quality which bothered me quite a bit, but that is its power. The prose hits hard on every page and the text has a biting acidic quality which fits its theme perfectly. This is an exceptional work!

None of these reviews really talk about the quality of the prose. That's what blew me away with 'Welcome to Yesterday.' I could care less that Spiegelman used to work at Page 6, but I do love hard boiled / noir-ish writing and I have to say, Spiegelman is a master. It's so refreshing to find a writer so young who really has 'the touch' when it comes to that gritty city dialogue, that artful masculine swagger - with a subtle paranoia pervading everything. It's something you can't fake. Either you got it, or you don't. And this guy's got it in spades. He really convinces you - like the classic writers in this genre - that the city itself is somehow grotesquely alive, an urban animal with a heartbeat that pounds so loudly it drives everyone that lives within its confines slightly mad. And I'm mad for this book. Put it in your shopping cart, baby.

I am a big fan of noir, and if dark isn't your thing, this book isn't for you. But if you like snappy dialogue, sharp prose, and a smart, quick read, you'll love it. I came to it expecting something a little more typical, since it deals with the inside media world of New York gossip, but Spiegelman is a really original writer. It takes a few pages before you mentally catch up to him -- he has so much style, you have to come up to his level to see all the different levels of what's going on. And there is a lot going on: crosses and double-crosses, power-plays, crushes that lead to heartbreak, and some really messed up people all trying to figure out what happened to this one Hollywood guy who may or may not have killed himself. it felt very retro, in a way, like Raymond Chandler or one of those great films from the 40s when everyone talked fast (HIS GIRL FRIDAY or THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS), but the way these characters deal with the world and each other couldn't be more modern. It's a total indictment of the whole culture of celebrity and a reminder of what a terrible waste it all is. As they say, you never want to see the sausage get made....

The only quibble I had was that things tie up a little too neatly -- you don't see it coming, but at the same time, it's a little quicker and easier than you would expect. All in all, though, an unforgettable book.

Fear and Loathing and Murder in New York - with a healthy dose of quick-fire dialogue. Sounds good? Then you should read Spiegelman's second novel, which confirms everything you've always suspected about the city's glitterati: they're shallow, they're mean, they're backstabbing (and worse), they're into drugs - and they're pretty damn sexy. As WELCOME TO YESTERDAY opens, one of them, talent agent Kyle Prince, is also dead, and a mysterious caller accuses gossip columnist Leon Koch of having killed him. What follows is a neo-noir of the first order, as Koch tries to unravel the events that led to Prince's death and hang on to the little integrity he has left...

What a complete waste of money. You would be better off buying the New York Post every day. I know. I do.