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Bright Shiny Morning
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.
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.
501 pages, Hardcover
First published May 12, 2008
483 people are currently reading
9771 people want to read
About the author
James Frey
74 books3,376 followersJames Christopher Frey is an American writer and businessman. His first two books, A Million Little Pieces (2003) and My Friend Leonard (2005), were bestsellers marketed as memoirs. Large parts of the stories were later found to be exaggerated or fabricated, sparking a media controversy. His 2008 novel Bright Shiny Morning was also a bestseller.
Frey is the founder and CEO of Full Fathom Five. A transmedia production company, FFF is responsible for the young adult adventure/science fiction series The Lorien Legacies of seven books written by Frey and others, under the collective pen name Pittacus Lore. Frey's first book of the series, I Am Number Four (2010), was made into a feature film by DreamWorks Pictures. He is also the CEO of NYXL, an esports organization based in New York.
Frey is the founder and CEO of Full Fathom Five. A transmedia production company, FFF is responsible for the young adult adventure/science fiction series The Lorien Legacies of seven books written by Frey and others, under the collective pen name Pittacus Lore. Frey's first book of the series, I Am Number Four (2010), was made into a feature film by DreamWorks Pictures. He is also the CEO of NYXL, an esports organization based in New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,561 reviews
January 13, 2013
I loved this. For so many reasons. One of course is James Frey's style of writing. I can't explain why I love the way he writes. I can see how it would get on so many people's nerves. Then I think, anyone can do this..use weird commas or no commas, and then I see it done poorly and realize that it really is a talent.
I loved the first line of the book..before the actual book starts "Nothing in this book should be considered accurate or reliable." Way to go James--you tell them! Then the further I got into the book, I started thinking wait a minute, all this LA history, all these fun little facts...are they true? Are they false? I loved the way the book played around in my head like that. Of course, I don't think I would have questioned their truthfulness with any other author of any other book. It was just the unique circumstance of following the "lies" of Million Little Pieces.
I loved all the characters that were brought up for a paragraph or two and then I wanted to know more. I loved Amberton and Esperanza. I didn't come to appreciate Old Man Joe until towards the end. I loved his dilemma over God.
I know a lot of the people were total stereotypes and I realize many characters weren't "real" in any sense of reality, but I enjoyed that about it.
I loved the originality of LA as a character--the main character and what it stood for. I love that it was a book full of dreams. Some realized, some not. I loved that the bad guys won (because it works that way a lot of the time), but sometimes the good guys won too.
And in the end, I hope that the book itself with all its dreams is a symbol of more to come from James Frey. That he will continue to be able to push through all the memoir-Oprah mess and continue to give us more books that for whatever reason all their rawness, sarcasm, irony, truth, and lies just appeal to me in a way that many other books do not.
I loved the first line of the book..before the actual book starts "Nothing in this book should be considered accurate or reliable." Way to go James--you tell them! Then the further I got into the book, I started thinking wait a minute, all this LA history, all these fun little facts...are they true? Are they false? I loved the way the book played around in my head like that. Of course, I don't think I would have questioned their truthfulness with any other author of any other book. It was just the unique circumstance of following the "lies" of Million Little Pieces.
I loved all the characters that were brought up for a paragraph or two and then I wanted to know more. I loved Amberton and Esperanza. I didn't come to appreciate Old Man Joe until towards the end. I loved his dilemma over God.
I know a lot of the people were total stereotypes and I realize many characters weren't "real" in any sense of reality, but I enjoyed that about it.
I loved the originality of LA as a character--the main character and what it stood for. I love that it was a book full of dreams. Some realized, some not. I loved that the bad guys won (because it works that way a lot of the time), but sometimes the good guys won too.
And in the end, I hope that the book itself with all its dreams is a symbol of more to come from James Frey. That he will continue to be able to push through all the memoir-Oprah mess and continue to give us more books that for whatever reason all their rawness, sarcasm, irony, truth, and lies just appeal to me in a way that many other books do not.
February 4, 2009
Everyone remembers the controversy surrounding A Million Little Pieces, James Frey’s first book. Published as a memoir, it was later revealed that much of the book was fabricated to protect those Frey wrote about.
In the end, however, the controversy doesn’t matter. Frey’s books A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard did what all good books should do: they evoked emotion, touched long forgotten places inside of us and inspired people to live better lives.
So despite the controversy, I was excited to get my hands on Bright Shiny Morning. I wanted the book to be wonderful, breath taking, as incredible as A Million Little Pieces. Thankfully, Bright Shiny Morning is so much more than that.
Bright Shiny Morning, Frey’s first work of fiction, is a novel about people living their lives in the fast paced city of L.A. It’s told in James Frey’s typical breath taking, beautiful prose and pulls you right in.
The book isn’t an ordinary novel as can be expected with Frey’s writing. Instead of a linear narrative, we are presented with a few reoccurring characters:
Dylan and Maddie, two teenagers who are madly in love. They run away to be together and find out about the darker side of life and love too soon.
Esperanza, a Mexican American, who takes a job as a maid in the house of Ms. Campbell, a woman so mean and rude that she borders on being abusive.
Amberton Parker, famous award winning actor who hides a secret so incredible that it could ruin his career if it was released.
Joe, a homeless man, who befriends a fifteen year old girl who is new to the streets and addicted to meth.
Sprinkled through out their stories are vignettes of other people, other characters who fill the city streets. As well, we learn factoids about Los Angels, about the city that serves not only as a backdrop for this novel but is essentially the largest character in the book.
James Frey has penned no mere novel. Instead he has given us one of the most intense studies of human nature. In this book is pure emotion sprawled across the page for us to read and it almost seems unseemly, looking into the characters lives as we do.
What I love most about Frey’s writing is that it’s real, it evokes emotion, it haunts you after you’ve turned the last page and closed the book. This is the true power of the written word, the ability to stay with the reader after the book is finished.
Frey has this in spades.
In Bright Shiny Morning, Frey proves that he is not only the subject of controversy. He is a writer and a true wordsmith. Bright Shiny Morning is, hands down, one of the best novels I have ever read. Ever.
If you haven’t read this yet, what are you waiting for? You have no idea what you’re missing.
In the end, however, the controversy doesn’t matter. Frey’s books A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard did what all good books should do: they evoked emotion, touched long forgotten places inside of us and inspired people to live better lives.
So despite the controversy, I was excited to get my hands on Bright Shiny Morning. I wanted the book to be wonderful, breath taking, as incredible as A Million Little Pieces. Thankfully, Bright Shiny Morning is so much more than that.
Bright Shiny Morning, Frey’s first work of fiction, is a novel about people living their lives in the fast paced city of L.A. It’s told in James Frey’s typical breath taking, beautiful prose and pulls you right in.
The book isn’t an ordinary novel as can be expected with Frey’s writing. Instead of a linear narrative, we are presented with a few reoccurring characters:
Dylan and Maddie, two teenagers who are madly in love. They run away to be together and find out about the darker side of life and love too soon.
Esperanza, a Mexican American, who takes a job as a maid in the house of Ms. Campbell, a woman so mean and rude that she borders on being abusive.
Amberton Parker, famous award winning actor who hides a secret so incredible that it could ruin his career if it was released.
Joe, a homeless man, who befriends a fifteen year old girl who is new to the streets and addicted to meth.
Sprinkled through out their stories are vignettes of other people, other characters who fill the city streets. As well, we learn factoids about Los Angels, about the city that serves not only as a backdrop for this novel but is essentially the largest character in the book.
James Frey has penned no mere novel. Instead he has given us one of the most intense studies of human nature. In this book is pure emotion sprawled across the page for us to read and it almost seems unseemly, looking into the characters lives as we do.
What I love most about Frey’s writing is that it’s real, it evokes emotion, it haunts you after you’ve turned the last page and closed the book. This is the true power of the written word, the ability to stay with the reader after the book is finished.
Frey has this in spades.
In Bright Shiny Morning, Frey proves that he is not only the subject of controversy. He is a writer and a true wordsmith. Bright Shiny Morning is, hands down, one of the best novels I have ever read. Ever.
If you haven’t read this yet, what are you waiting for? You have no idea what you’re missing.
June 10, 2008
I am so busy that sometimes I curl up in a fetal ball in my mind. The fact that I read this 500 page book is a testimony to how well it is written.
Now everyone who knows me knows how I feel about the self-indulgence of memoir. Nevertheless, I always found Oprah's treatment of Mr. Frey distasteful and stupid. Do we really believe authors such as Augusten Burroughs are telling the absolute truth about their lives? No. But they don't get publicly flayed....although in the case of Mr. Burroughs I would be a fan of that action.
Mr Frey turns out a book of fiction that is everything Mr. Burroughs will never produce. Well written, amazing characters, and atmosphere aplenty. Take a week and read a book by a memoirist who can actually move beyond that genre and produce good writing.
Now everyone who knows me knows how I feel about the self-indulgence of memoir. Nevertheless, I always found Oprah's treatment of Mr. Frey distasteful and stupid. Do we really believe authors such as Augusten Burroughs are telling the absolute truth about their lives? No. But they don't get publicly flayed....although in the case of Mr. Burroughs I would be a fan of that action.
Mr Frey turns out a book of fiction that is everything Mr. Burroughs will never produce. Well written, amazing characters, and atmosphere aplenty. Take a week and read a book by a memoirist who can actually move beyond that genre and produce good writing.
February 9, 2017
Los Angeles, The City of Angels, the american dream for some, a living hell for others, either way they share the same blue sky, it's where they call home, and home is a sprawling mass of wealth, poverty, tourists, talent agencies, paparazzi, sex scandals, traffic jams, billboard signs, beeping horns, police sirens, palm lined beaches, street-gangs, mini-malls, car lots, discount stores, designer stores, ammunition stores, movie stars, porn stars, pawn shops, shopping sprees, killing sprees, boob jobs, nose jobs, well paid jobs, dead end jobs, illegal jobs, stretch limos, luxury cars, burnt out cars, and burnt out people, from the multi-million dollar mansions, exclusive clubs and swanky restaurants, to the run-down neighbourhoods, cheap motels and trailer parks.
We follow various different characters dotted throughout the city, some only get a brief mention and don't appear again, while others have a story that runs the entirety. These include, a famous movie star who publicly is a happily married family man but secretly is an obsessive homosexual who's world might be about to crumble, a homeless man who gets his meals from left over food dumped in the trash while spending his days on Venice beach and nights using a restroom as a bedroom, a young Hispanic girl working as a maid for an unpleasant rich old lady who dreams of a brighter future and a teenage couple who flee their small town in Ohio to try and make a better life for themselves. Also there are real facts about the history of L.A County littered between the fiction which are always interesting, while some of the statistics given are really quite frightening.
Frey's writing is certainly distinctive here and will have it's haters, but I found it a richly detailed
and additive read.
We follow various different characters dotted throughout the city, some only get a brief mention and don't appear again, while others have a story that runs the entirety. These include, a famous movie star who publicly is a happily married family man but secretly is an obsessive homosexual who's world might be about to crumble, a homeless man who gets his meals from left over food dumped in the trash while spending his days on Venice beach and nights using a restroom as a bedroom, a young Hispanic girl working as a maid for an unpleasant rich old lady who dreams of a brighter future and a teenage couple who flee their small town in Ohio to try and make a better life for themselves. Also there are real facts about the history of L.A County littered between the fiction which are always interesting, while some of the statistics given are really quite frightening.
Frey's writing is certainly distinctive here and will have it's haters, but I found it a richly detailed
and additive read.
May 19, 2008
alright, well, i just read the first 225 pgs and i'm not gonna continue. it's not that it's soooo terrible. it's not. his stylized prose works more often than not and he can definitely set a tone. if i didn't have a stack of books on my desk that i've been dying to read, i'd probably finish... but, no. the minutes tick by and monsieur reaper hides behind every corner.
it's not that just'bout everything in the book (the individual pieces and the sum of their parts) is cliche, cliche, cliche... cliches, as the cliche goes, are cliche for a reason. frey just takes it all too seriously. if the reader detected the slightest glimmer in his eye, she'd be more forgiving... we watch tony scott's films (well, some of 'em) with childlike glee: all that smoke and those dust motes bouncing around in angled sunlight and all that manipulative-as-mud mood music and soft focus? it works in a cheestastic way b/c scott understands that that's what he's all about: mood and music and light and shadow... and his characters are the same: props, part of the mise-en-scene. and this is what frey doesn't get. he'd probably write a damn cool tony-scott-type novel. but he wants to write altman.
frey attempts to circumvent character development by throwing out a single kooky trait or idiosyncrasy and then referring to it over and over as a means to explain, discuss, and understand character and human behavior. it just doesn't work like that.
i'd never read frey before this and found the whole controversy ridiculous. i wanted to love Bright Shiny Morning as a personal FUCK YOU to all that moronic fake moral outrage. oh well.
it's not that just'bout everything in the book (the individual pieces and the sum of their parts) is cliche, cliche, cliche... cliches, as the cliche goes, are cliche for a reason. frey just takes it all too seriously. if the reader detected the slightest glimmer in his eye, she'd be more forgiving... we watch tony scott's films (well, some of 'em) with childlike glee: all that smoke and those dust motes bouncing around in angled sunlight and all that manipulative-as-mud mood music and soft focus? it works in a cheestastic way b/c scott understands that that's what he's all about: mood and music and light and shadow... and his characters are the same: props, part of the mise-en-scene. and this is what frey doesn't get. he'd probably write a damn cool tony-scott-type novel. but he wants to write altman.
frey attempts to circumvent character development by throwing out a single kooky trait or idiosyncrasy and then referring to it over and over as a means to explain, discuss, and understand character and human behavior. it just doesn't work like that.
i'd never read frey before this and found the whole controversy ridiculous. i wanted to love Bright Shiny Morning as a personal FUCK YOU to all that moronic fake moral outrage. oh well.
November 30, 2025
I loved reading Bright Shiny Morning. I really loved it.
Written as a collage, the book is an ode to Los Angeles. I’m not sure it can technically be called a novel, because it follows several parallel story lines that never meet.
The author traced a collective vision of the city, high and low, from Hollywood to the Valley to East L.A. - a successful attempt to get at the fluidity of Los Angeles, it’s constant inflows and outflows.
There's Old Man Joe, a drunk who inhabits a bathroom on the Venice boardwalk and seeks mystical affirmation in a daily ritual. Or Amberton Parker, a Harvard-educated Oscar-winning actor, who lives a perfect life with his wife and children and has a secret. There’s Esperanza, daughter of illegal Mexican immigrants who slaves away for a horrible old lady, and a couple of young and poor lovers from Ohio who ran away from home.
Stereotypes? Caricatures? Yes, and the book is not well-written in the slightest, but Frey charges each of these tales with such humanity, such emotional and lyrical power that it’s hard to unglue your eyes from the pages. This is possibly the book’s strongest feature. Thanks to this poetic intensity, this “electricity of the page”, I was drawn in by every one of the 500 pages.
Interspersed with these rotating portraits, or with the separate stories of these main characters, are historical vignettes of LA, tracing its corruption and its foibles since its recent origins, until the city itself becomes a character: a wild and volatile multi-tentacled beast capable of bestowing great hurt (and the odd chunk of real love) on those who are enmeshed in it.
A smart thing Frey did with these historical bits is that he kept each of them very, very short, so that they don’t break the rhythm of the overall narration. They also provide some of the glue that’s needed to keep everything together.
It’s a bold book, even recklessly so, as you see immediately from the way the author refuses to follow basic rules of grammar, and the way he makes a bonfire with many do’s and dont’s of how to write a novel.
But it worked perfectly well for me. I guess it’s also for personal reasons, because this is a fresco about the town I’ve been living in the last 9 years - Los Angeles, with all its craziness, its shoddiness, its heart-stopping ugliness and its rare moments of real beauty. Maybe if it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have enjoyed the book as much.
All in all, this is a heartfelt 500 pages poem about LA that might not be a literary gem but offers a lot of authenticity and intensity.
Written as a collage, the book is an ode to Los Angeles. I’m not sure it can technically be called a novel, because it follows several parallel story lines that never meet.
The author traced a collective vision of the city, high and low, from Hollywood to the Valley to East L.A. - a successful attempt to get at the fluidity of Los Angeles, it’s constant inflows and outflows.
There's Old Man Joe, a drunk who inhabits a bathroom on the Venice boardwalk and seeks mystical affirmation in a daily ritual. Or Amberton Parker, a Harvard-educated Oscar-winning actor, who lives a perfect life with his wife and children and has a secret. There’s Esperanza, daughter of illegal Mexican immigrants who slaves away for a horrible old lady, and a couple of young and poor lovers from Ohio who ran away from home.
Stereotypes? Caricatures? Yes, and the book is not well-written in the slightest, but Frey charges each of these tales with such humanity, such emotional and lyrical power that it’s hard to unglue your eyes from the pages. This is possibly the book’s strongest feature. Thanks to this poetic intensity, this “electricity of the page”, I was drawn in by every one of the 500 pages.
Interspersed with these rotating portraits, or with the separate stories of these main characters, are historical vignettes of LA, tracing its corruption and its foibles since its recent origins, until the city itself becomes a character: a wild and volatile multi-tentacled beast capable of bestowing great hurt (and the odd chunk of real love) on those who are enmeshed in it.
A smart thing Frey did with these historical bits is that he kept each of them very, very short, so that they don’t break the rhythm of the overall narration. They also provide some of the glue that’s needed to keep everything together.
It’s a bold book, even recklessly so, as you see immediately from the way the author refuses to follow basic rules of grammar, and the way he makes a bonfire with many do’s and dont’s of how to write a novel.
But it worked perfectly well for me. I guess it’s also for personal reasons, because this is a fresco about the town I’ve been living in the last 9 years - Los Angeles, with all its craziness, its shoddiness, its heart-stopping ugliness and its rare moments of real beauty. Maybe if it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have enjoyed the book as much.
All in all, this is a heartfelt 500 pages poem about LA that might not be a literary gem but offers a lot of authenticity and intensity.
November 28, 2020
I know there’s been some controversy with some of Frey’s other works but I’m a huge fan nonetheless. Whether it’s fiction or not, who gives a shit, it’s still good. Anyways, enough of that and onto this book! I didn’t like it quite as much as the other books I’ve read by Frey but I did still very much enjoy it. I love the different views he gives of the city, showing us all facets and faces of it. Some were heartbreaking, some were groan worthy but all of them were fascinating and captivating. My only minor complaint is that there were so many different viewpoints that I had a hard time keep tracking at some points. But all in all, I loved this story and I’m just a huge fan of Frey’s writing style!
June 17, 2018
This is possibly the best book I have read all year. Following The Million Little Lies, I had lost my faith in Frey as a writer... Cliche, I realize... but it's true. Now, I believe that if that is what was required for him to whip up this masterpiece, so be it. That is exactly what this is. A masterpiece. Although I do not agree with his "this is my style because I am cool & I do not give a fuck about grammar"... I have to say it works. Although it requires me to concentrate in ways I am not familiar with in order to not be completely lost, I like it. He definitely has a style I have to say I find nothing short of genius. Otherwise, he's on drugs & was lucky enough to have it work. And I mean no disrespect with that statement. In all honesty, I do have great respect for him because I know what it is like to not have an easy life... However, I still find it hard to sympathize with some of the sheer, bold, outright lies in regards to his memoir. That being said, this book was enough to bring him back to idol stature in my eyes... as far as writing talent goes. As far as his personal life... I cannot comment more, as the media, I am sure, painted all over the truth as well.
All of the main stories in this piece were well written & showed the vast variety of people, cultures, socioeconomic strata, etc. etc. etc. in The Great City Of Los Angeles. And, yes, I have lived in Los Angeles... Alright, Los Angeles County, anyway. But I visited enough to get a good laugh out of all the inserted chapters... especially the one on all the freeways... Only a true Californian could appreciate this one.
I felt some of the short stories and/or character studies that were visited only once were unnecessary... and, honestly, I hated reading them, knowing it would be that much longer before I could get back to Dylan & Maddie (My favorite story), Esperanza & Doug (My second favorite), and/or Joe (My third favorite). I had to read them anyway, of course, since, although I suspected I would never hear about them again, one never knows.
Re: Trivia Facts and/or Historical Knowledge About The City Of Los Angeles... I found to be interesting at times... and, well, informative, but mostly in the way of the stories.
In all, I loved this book. The stories were wonderful concepts, as I have said, but, honestly, it was the way they were written presented, detailed, conveyed, that has me singing such praise.
Now, all we need is a book of such caliber to represent other respectable cities of this country.
All of the main stories in this piece were well written & showed the vast variety of people, cultures, socioeconomic strata, etc. etc. etc. in The Great City Of Los Angeles. And, yes, I have lived in Los Angeles... Alright, Los Angeles County, anyway. But I visited enough to get a good laugh out of all the inserted chapters... especially the one on all the freeways... Only a true Californian could appreciate this one.
I felt some of the short stories and/or character studies that were visited only once were unnecessary... and, honestly, I hated reading them, knowing it would be that much longer before I could get back to Dylan & Maddie (My favorite story), Esperanza & Doug (My second favorite), and/or Joe (My third favorite). I had to read them anyway, of course, since, although I suspected I would never hear about them again, one never knows.
Re: Trivia Facts and/or Historical Knowledge About The City Of Los Angeles... I found to be interesting at times... and, well, informative, but mostly in the way of the stories.
In all, I loved this book. The stories were wonderful concepts, as I have said, but, honestly, it was the way they were written presented, detailed, conveyed, that has me singing such praise.
Now, all we need is a book of such caliber to represent other respectable cities of this country.
July 26, 2015
I had never read a book until Bright Shiny Morning where, immediately after finishing, said to myself, "Well, that could've been at least 200 pages shorter."
July 7, 2008
A book with so much potential that realized very little of it. Bright Shiny Morning follows about 5 major characters, and another 20(ish) minor characters, in and around the Los Angeles area. Some of these characters have recently moved to L.A. and some have lived in L.A. their entire lives. All are connected by the city itself and Frey's notion that it is really the "city of broken dream". For example, Esperanza, a Mexican-American whose parents moved to the U.S. in order to provide a better life for their daughter, is employed to work as a maid by your stereotypical nasty old woman throughout most of the book. Her dream is to go to college and live a different life from her parents. Another character, Old Man Joe, is a homeless man who lives in a bathroom on the beach and has no idea how he got there. Every morning he wakes up and goes to the beach to stare into the ocean and the sky trying to figure out how he ended up there.
Out of every character that Frey writes, there are very few stories that don't end up shattered into a million little pieces (heh, sorry, couldn't help it). Mind you, there's nothing particularly wrong with this. Artistically speaking, it's certainly far more interesting to read about a character's demise or the disastrous consequences that character finds themselves dealing with than some sort of happy go lucky existence. But Frey turns it into a systematic and basically inevitable conclusion for each character he writes. In fact, I was far more surprised when a character actually managed to survive his/her ordeal in relatively good shape. Bright Shiny Morning proved to quite predictable in the end, and Frey all but beats you over the head with his major theme uniting all the characters. A little subtlety can go a long way, but Frey does not seem to know (or care) about that.
Now, the writing style...don't get me started. If Frey was attempting to be poetic, it didn't work. If he was trying simply for a prose style, it didn't work. If he was actually aiming for a style that was bad, it worked. Sometimes the absence of punctuation and a run-on sentence extravaganza can work (Cormac McCarthy anyone?), but in this case, it was just bad. What really drove me crazy were the bits and pieces that he would repeat over and over again throughout different parts of the book. If it wasn't good the first time, repeating it over and over again isn't going to improve it. I eventually got over the writing style enough to finish the book, but it certainly drove me crazy.
I liked Bright Shiny Morning well enough. Personally, there's nothing more frustrating than reading a book with SO much potential that falls so short of it. Frey set himself up with so much to work with in order to turn this into a great novel, but he came nowhere close to doing it.
Out of every character that Frey writes, there are very few stories that don't end up shattered into a million little pieces (heh, sorry, couldn't help it). Mind you, there's nothing particularly wrong with this. Artistically speaking, it's certainly far more interesting to read about a character's demise or the disastrous consequences that character finds themselves dealing with than some sort of happy go lucky existence. But Frey turns it into a systematic and basically inevitable conclusion for each character he writes. In fact, I was far more surprised when a character actually managed to survive his/her ordeal in relatively good shape. Bright Shiny Morning proved to quite predictable in the end, and Frey all but beats you over the head with his major theme uniting all the characters. A little subtlety can go a long way, but Frey does not seem to know (or care) about that.
Now, the writing style...don't get me started. If Frey was attempting to be poetic, it didn't work. If he was trying simply for a prose style, it didn't work. If he was actually aiming for a style that was bad, it worked. Sometimes the absence of punctuation and a run-on sentence extravaganza can work (Cormac McCarthy anyone?), but in this case, it was just bad. What really drove me crazy were the bits and pieces that he would repeat over and over again throughout different parts of the book. If it wasn't good the first time, repeating it over and over again isn't going to improve it. I eventually got over the writing style enough to finish the book, but it certainly drove me crazy.
I liked Bright Shiny Morning well enough. Personally, there's nothing more frustrating than reading a book with SO much potential that falls so short of it. Frey set himself up with so much to work with in order to turn this into a great novel, but he came nowhere close to doing it.
February 9, 2017
This is a Comment not a Review. To review a book fairly, I believe you must read a book in it's entirety – I read only 185 pages and decided not to continue.
I did not like the punctuated sense of this novel: that is, the absence of punctuation, random capitals inserted into sentences and don't get me started on the way sentences ran on into each other. It's probably fair to say I spent far too much time dissecting and trying to follow this weird type of prose – and I use the term 'prose' very loosely here. Barely one page devoted to a character before abandoning them to flit off to another new one – too, too little development for my taste.
But try this novel if you will, many readers have thoroughly enjoyed it.
February 16, 2013
A 4.5 rating for me.
The only thing I knew about James Frey was what almost everybody who is an avid reader knows, that his memoir was, well, a novel. I'm sure there was some truth to that memoir, and if anyone really believes memoirs to be fully factual, just get far away from me. What am I talking about? Most of my inner circle of acquaintances and friends probably have no idea what a memoir even is. I'm not joking.
So with all that said, I was truly reluctant to read this book with all the bad press this poor, but phenomenal writer has gotten for being called out about his memoir. This book shook me right from the start. It took my senses hostage and kept me turning page after page. Some of the shit in this, not so lightly tale, kicked my ass hard. I'm from Orange County originally, and whenever I'd visit LA, to me, it was like night and day from Orange County. LA is definitely it's own monster, a really beautiful, scary monster. A monster like King Kong. Ferocious, yet kinda lovable. But regardless, you see it and you still want it to just die in agony. It's just too fucking big and destructive! The machine that is LA is beautifully and hauntingly rendered in this book. The nightmare for most, or dream that it has been for few oozes through the pages of this magnificent 500-plus page book. And all the "fun facts" that are throughout this novel are truly fun and also can be sometimes disheartening. LA, through reading this book, captures just how ugly humanity really is, but in the cracks of cement, like humanity, a flower sometimes grows.
The only thing I knew about James Frey was what almost everybody who is an avid reader knows, that his memoir was, well, a novel. I'm sure there was some truth to that memoir, and if anyone really believes memoirs to be fully factual, just get far away from me. What am I talking about? Most of my inner circle of acquaintances and friends probably have no idea what a memoir even is. I'm not joking.
So with all that said, I was truly reluctant to read this book with all the bad press this poor, but phenomenal writer has gotten for being called out about his memoir. This book shook me right from the start. It took my senses hostage and kept me turning page after page. Some of the shit in this, not so lightly tale, kicked my ass hard. I'm from Orange County originally, and whenever I'd visit LA, to me, it was like night and day from Orange County. LA is definitely it's own monster, a really beautiful, scary monster. A monster like King Kong. Ferocious, yet kinda lovable. But regardless, you see it and you still want it to just die in agony. It's just too fucking big and destructive! The machine that is LA is beautifully and hauntingly rendered in this book. The nightmare for most, or dream that it has been for few oozes through the pages of this magnificent 500-plus page book. And all the "fun facts" that are throughout this novel are truly fun and also can be sometimes disheartening. LA, through reading this book, captures just how ugly humanity really is, but in the cracks of cement, like humanity, a flower sometimes grows.
April 6, 2009
I picked this book up because I loved A Million Little Pieces, regardless of all the controversy that surrounded it (I read it after it was discovered that much of it was false).
With that being said, I do love Frey's writing style- the stream of consciousness, lack of proper punctuation, the continuous flow of words and thoughts meshing together.
The problem is, only about half of the book is like that. The rest is rather odd- the book centers around the settling and "coming to be" of the city of Los Angeles. I love the book when it discusses the different characters involved. For example- a nineteen year old couple in love, a homeless man, a famous actor, etc. But, there are chapters and pages devoted to "weird facts" about Los Angeles, random notes about the crime and diseases, that have nothing to do with the characters in the book. I thought it was completely out of place, annoying, and boring. I skipped through those pages. If that had been left out of the book, it would have been substantially shorter and would have received a 5 star review from me!
With that being said, I do love Frey's writing style- the stream of consciousness, lack of proper punctuation, the continuous flow of words and thoughts meshing together.
The problem is, only about half of the book is like that. The rest is rather odd- the book centers around the settling and "coming to be" of the city of Los Angeles. I love the book when it discusses the different characters involved. For example- a nineteen year old couple in love, a homeless man, a famous actor, etc. But, there are chapters and pages devoted to "weird facts" about Los Angeles, random notes about the crime and diseases, that have nothing to do with the characters in the book. I thought it was completely out of place, annoying, and boring. I skipped through those pages. If that had been left out of the book, it would have been substantially shorter and would have received a 5 star review from me!
July 3, 2009
This was a very frustrating book. Just as I would start to get into one of the stories, it would switch to some random piece of crap interjected in an attempt to tie it all together (or at least I'm assuming that's what their purpose is). Note to author: listing tidbits of information that go on forever is not an effective means of writing. It is boring and pointless at best, but more often it was distracting and irritating. I would have rather had one or two of the stories expanded into full length novels than only getting little snippets of actual quality writing washed out with utter garbage.
I suppose an argument could be made that their was a touching, underlying message about friendship and love and the fact that money can't buy you happiness. Except for the fact that it wasn't so much underlying as blatantly obvious, therefore reducing its ability to pack any sort of punch. Those subtle messages only work if you have the ability as an author to go beyond simple story formation (this book) into the realm of true literature (definitely not this book).
I suppose an argument could be made that their was a touching, underlying message about friendship and love and the fact that money can't buy you happiness. Except for the fact that it wasn't so much underlying as blatantly obvious, therefore reducing its ability to pack any sort of punch. Those subtle messages only work if you have the ability as an author to go beyond simple story formation (this book) into the realm of true literature (definitely not this book).
May 28, 2008
I am NOT just giving this book 5 stars to get back at the spiteful reviewers on Amazon (who didn't even read the book!) The integrity they lack- giving a book you haven't read 1 star. In my mind, it goes to show how many people think what Oprah thinks just because she thinks it. For more background on my review, I read "A Million Little Pieces" BEFORE it was revealed that it was not completely factual. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and although I didn't base my own rehabilitation solely on his writing (I don't do drugs thankfully) I felt it was a book that had a lot of merit. And, he tried first to sell it as fiction and was convinced by publishers to make it a memoir- give the guy a break.
Since, I enjoyed his writing and because I read the reviews of people who read this latest offering (it may have originally been his first unpublished novel???), I decided to read it. I confess than, the reviewers- who described the book as a novel with Los Angeles (the city) as the main character, may have guided my reading/interpretation.
Excellent book. I can't think of a book that better describes a city - through facts, trivia, even stereotypical "LA" characters (that he gives interesting authentic voices). I wonder how actual residents of Los Angeles will receive this book versus people like me who can only guess what life there is really like.
Frey has a very intimate (at times crass), often manic writing voice that could certainly be tiresome to read too frequently but it seems to be a great voice for Los Angeles. I highly recommend the book and encourage those who feel Oprah needs to get over herself to give this guy another chance.
Since, I enjoyed his writing and because I read the reviews of people who read this latest offering (it may have originally been his first unpublished novel???), I decided to read it. I confess than, the reviewers- who described the book as a novel with Los Angeles (the city) as the main character, may have guided my reading/interpretation.
Excellent book. I can't think of a book that better describes a city - through facts, trivia, even stereotypical "LA" characters (that he gives interesting authentic voices). I wonder how actual residents of Los Angeles will receive this book versus people like me who can only guess what life there is really like.
Frey has a very intimate (at times crass), often manic writing voice that could certainly be tiresome to read too frequently but it seems to be a great voice for Los Angeles. I highly recommend the book and encourage those who feel Oprah needs to get over herself to give this guy another chance.
April 5, 2011
This book reads like a screenplay which makes sense because James Frey was actually a screenwriter before A Million Little Pieces. The book is as if someone asked James Frey to write a book to the future to sum up all of LA. This broadness is at once intriguing and completely dull. It is also clearly influenced by Crash. There are a couple interesting story lines but the incessant introduction of characters that are sometimes not even named and then never go anywhere is frustrating. It is almost like Moby Dick the way it interrupts a storyline that is finally starting to go somewhere with encyclopedic descriptions of every highway in Los Angeles. I imagine anyone from LA would be bored to tears by most of this book. That being said as someone not that familiar with L.A. and intrigued by overall descriptions of place, I did manage to make it to the end of the book. Many others probably won't. The other tricky part is that this author - whose credibility is now so destroyed - has based so much of the book on the listing of facts and information. The reader has no way of knowing which are true since it has a very wide disclaimer at the beginning, which is frustrating. I feel like I learned a lot about L.A. but can walk away without knowing if any of it is actually true.
October 6, 2025
Like John Steinbeck's "East of Eden" which is a novel about the Salinas Valley, James Frey's written a novel about Los Angeles, and wouldn't you know it, it's amazing.
The novel doesn't have Chapter 1, 2, etc. but does have separate sections which follow 4 main plot threads - a gay movie star, a young teen couple who've runaway to start a new life in LA, the daughter of immigrants out to find acceptance in society, and a beach bum. The book is also interspersed with sections devoted to facts about LA while separate pages divide these sections with each page containing a piece of history of LA from it's founding to present day. The main character - Los Angeles, the city itself - has separate sections about it's highways, it's movie industry, it's ethnic sections like Chinatown etc, it's weather and geography, it's inhabitants.
The beach bum, Old Man Joe, showed the life of a homeless person and yet was by far the most attractive (sort of). Joe is a great character, a man who lives in a toilet, drinking Chablis during the day, and sits on the beach at dawn awaiting a vision. He meets a young girl addicted to meth and beaten nearly to death and takes it upon himself to help her. Esperanza, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, provides the warm centre of the book. The beaten down underdog who succeeds in the end, her story was the sweetest and the one you cheered for once you reached the end. The young runaways, Dylan and Maddie, were the ones I thought were supposed to show the opposite to the many horrorific stories Frey throws out about people who come to LA, and it very nearly was until the ending. Frey really doesn't believe in happily ever after and keeps you guessing until the last page. The gay movie star, Amberton Parker (Parker = Cruise?), was the least interesting but was still readable.
I mention "East of Eden" because it's the great California novel. "Bright Shiny Morning", it's 21st century equivalent, is also a great California novel. It's ambitious and it's scope is large but Frey pulls it off admirably with maverick writing skills (difficult for some because of the unconventional use of grammar and punctuation - or absence thereof) and a strong instinct for storytelling. It's never boring and he never resorts to hackneyed reveals, coincidence, or melodramatic deus ex machinas.
There's too much in the book to talk about and too much I liked about it but suffice it to say that I wouldn't be surprised to see this in the Penguin Classics range in 100 years time. It's clever and has many layers to it but is also very entertaining and can be enjoyed by the casual reader looking for an excellent tale. I really think this is one of the best American novels of the last 10 years and if this is any indication then Frey is destined for quite a career. I look forward to the next novel. Bravo James Frey!
The novel doesn't have Chapter 1, 2, etc. but does have separate sections which follow 4 main plot threads - a gay movie star, a young teen couple who've runaway to start a new life in LA, the daughter of immigrants out to find acceptance in society, and a beach bum. The book is also interspersed with sections devoted to facts about LA while separate pages divide these sections with each page containing a piece of history of LA from it's founding to present day. The main character - Los Angeles, the city itself - has separate sections about it's highways, it's movie industry, it's ethnic sections like Chinatown etc, it's weather and geography, it's inhabitants.
The beach bum, Old Man Joe, showed the life of a homeless person and yet was by far the most attractive (sort of). Joe is a great character, a man who lives in a toilet, drinking Chablis during the day, and sits on the beach at dawn awaiting a vision. He meets a young girl addicted to meth and beaten nearly to death and takes it upon himself to help her. Esperanza, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, provides the warm centre of the book. The beaten down underdog who succeeds in the end, her story was the sweetest and the one you cheered for once you reached the end. The young runaways, Dylan and Maddie, were the ones I thought were supposed to show the opposite to the many horrorific stories Frey throws out about people who come to LA, and it very nearly was until the ending. Frey really doesn't believe in happily ever after and keeps you guessing until the last page. The gay movie star, Amberton Parker (Parker = Cruise?), was the least interesting but was still readable.
I mention "East of Eden" because it's the great California novel. "Bright Shiny Morning", it's 21st century equivalent, is also a great California novel. It's ambitious and it's scope is large but Frey pulls it off admirably with maverick writing skills (difficult for some because of the unconventional use of grammar and punctuation - or absence thereof) and a strong instinct for storytelling. It's never boring and he never resorts to hackneyed reveals, coincidence, or melodramatic deus ex machinas.
There's too much in the book to talk about and too much I liked about it but suffice it to say that I wouldn't be surprised to see this in the Penguin Classics range in 100 years time. It's clever and has many layers to it but is also very entertaining and can be enjoyed by the casual reader looking for an excellent tale. I really think this is one of the best American novels of the last 10 years and if this is any indication then Frey is destined for quite a career. I look forward to the next novel. Bravo James Frey!
May 22, 2008
I've only read the first 10 pages or so, and it's terrible. Still, and I want everyone to hear this, I purchased this book just to stick it to Oprah. For this reason alone, I believe my pennies have been well deposited. More later.
Here's the later: Really, I apologize to anyone that I've offended just by having tried to read this work. Yeah, I've read further into this hulkish nightmare. It's a complete disaster. The story's cliche, weak, poorly written. The million little pieces Mr. Frey kicked are known as commas. They're missing and not to his credit. I wish we had a half-star system. Geez. I'm working on a new shelf titled read what I could.
Here's the later: Really, I apologize to anyone that I've offended just by having tried to read this work. Yeah, I've read further into this hulkish nightmare. It's a complete disaster. The story's cliche, weak, poorly written. The million little pieces Mr. Frey kicked are known as commas. They're missing and not to his credit. I wish we had a half-star system. Geez. I'm working on a new shelf titled read what I could.
September 18, 2010
This book was very easy to read and gave me the kind of travelogue that I've always really wanted for visiting a city - a glimpse at the real pulse of the city of LA which can be difficult for a tourist on the ground to sense. It is not a travel book, but it gives a very vivid snapshot of LA and its people. Lots of diverse narratives all coursing together in a warts and all look at Los Angeles and more broadly the concept of "California" in all its fucked up tarnished lustre. I don't care if James Frey lied about the 'truth' of his first big novel. The guy can write
March 20, 2009
Odd, interesting book. Kind of incoherent but one of the most accurate descriptors of Los Angeles I've read in recent memory.
August 3, 2020
I regret buying this book.
I could not bring myself to read every word, so, when I got to page 300 I started skimming through the book, left chunks of chapters untouched and just convinced myself that I’ve seen and read enough, that I don’t need to torture myself further.
So, this was my first read of any of James Frey works and I do not understand the hype. This book was bad that it hurts, not just plain bad, it was as if Frey was doing it purposely, for a fraction of a second, I was almost convinced that I hate reading (and that’s impossible).
The smallest and most important of things made me cringe, from the lack of punctuation, the repetition of phrases, shallow wording down to the plot and main idea of the book.
The exaggerated number of the characters made them seem meaningless, insignificant and two-dimensional. The characters were presented in a way where they were defined as objects, they were viewed by the things they mentioned or did most which is very cliché:
Chablis
The author did not take time to study such complicated plot and characters, he just threw them in and hoped that we wouldn’t notice how he was clearly relying on stereotypes.
At some point, I was seriously avoiding touching the book because I would actually get in a bad, depressing mood because of it,
It made everything seem pointless to me, that there is always going to be some kind of disgusting someone, who is barely defined as human being, to ruin it all, dreams and hopes. James Frey, truly, made me hate Los Angeles and “hate” is a strong word.
Why would you call this a novel, when it was more of a non-fiction work talking about how LA is actually a dream-crusher and a home of sick minds? I do not see LA that way and I would never want to preview it as a home of tormented souls. It is a place where a lot of successful people happen to live..
Because I’m pretty sure that if you want to talk about any other city, you’d find out that LA is the most innocent of them all.
I am not trying to say that this dark side of people or cities doesn’t exist, it does,
but for example, don’t make me, as a young reader, lose hope in humanity or perceive an inaccurate picture of a place or situation.
He tried to have a unique style of writing as if that would work to cover the disorganized plot which was trying so damn bad to be one.
I could not bring myself to read every word, so, when I got to page 300 I started skimming through the book, left chunks of chapters untouched and just convinced myself that I’ve seen and read enough, that I don’t need to torture myself further.
So, this was my first read of any of James Frey works and I do not understand the hype. This book was bad that it hurts, not just plain bad, it was as if Frey was doing it purposely, for a fraction of a second, I was almost convinced that I hate reading (and that’s impossible).
The smallest and most important of things made me cringe, from the lack of punctuation, the repetition of phrases, shallow wording down to the plot and main idea of the book.
The exaggerated number of the characters made them seem meaningless, insignificant and two-dimensional. The characters were presented in a way where they were defined as objects, they were viewed by the things they mentioned or did most which is very cliché:
Chablis
The author did not take time to study such complicated plot and characters, he just threw them in and hoped that we wouldn’t notice how he was clearly relying on stereotypes.
At some point, I was seriously avoiding touching the book because I would actually get in a bad, depressing mood because of it,
It made everything seem pointless to me, that there is always going to be some kind of disgusting someone, who is barely defined as human being, to ruin it all, dreams and hopes. James Frey, truly, made me hate Los Angeles and “hate” is a strong word.
Why would you call this a novel, when it was more of a non-fiction work talking about how LA is actually a dream-crusher and a home of sick minds? I do not see LA that way and I would never want to preview it as a home of tormented souls. It is a place where a lot of successful people happen to live..
Because I’m pretty sure that if you want to talk about any other city, you’d find out that LA is the most innocent of them all.
I am not trying to say that this dark side of people or cities doesn’t exist, it does,
but for example, don’t make me, as a young reader, lose hope in humanity or perceive an inaccurate picture of a place or situation.
He tried to have a unique style of writing as if that would work to cover the disorganized plot which was trying so damn bad to be one.
March 12, 2016
Day after day I see them. I walk and I hear them. I walk and I feel them. I walk in the Land of Angels, I walk in the Land of Dreams.
What a book! At first it seemed a bit messy, you get paragraphs of one or two characters and then there are new characters and so it continues. However, in the middle of the book I was just dying to know how does their story continue, where do they end up.
It's a novel about LA, it's beautiful! All the little facts about LA's history, statistics about the city were stunning and they supported characters and the story. They help you see what's LA all about. Los Angeles- city of angels and city of dreams. But so often wings of those angels have been cut and their dreams have been crushed.
Frey's writing is very different, highly unique. He doesn't use commas, sentences are often very short. I adore it because it's sort of raw and it gets the message through.
5/5
January 30, 2021
*3.5 stars
July 7, 2008
This is just a scattered collection of my thoughts on this book. I liked certain aspects of this book and was majorly turned off by ohers. I plowed through it in a matter of days and looked forward to reading it each night before going to bed. I easily connected with the characters and towards the end of the book, found myself skipping the commentary/facts on LA. (Some of it was interesting, some of it was way too long. I didn't feel I was missing anything by skipping a lot of it at the end.)Frey's portrayl of some of the characters was really cliched, annoying, and over the top. (Amberton putting on a fake beard and staking out Kevin? Cheesy B movie. It read like fan fiction at that point. BAD fan fiction.) Still, I did find myself rooting for many of the characters; Esperanza and Dylan and Maddie in particular. I would have rather seen Amberton die than Dylan, without question.
Something I don't take issue with that I know many other people do is Frey's writing style. Sometimes I had to reread a sentence because of the lack of punctuation but I liked the sense of urgency it instilled in me as the reader. I wanted to find out what the characters would do next.
However, I think it would have been to Frey's advantage to stick to the five characters who had the biggest stories. Some of the ones that show up and disappear didn't have an affect on me or seem to fit into the story very well.
The biggest issue I have with this book is the random inclusion and discription of Mario Lavanderia or Perez Hilton. Frey seems to describe characters that are loosely based on Hollywood/LA rumors and stereotypes. In this instances, he very clearly described Perez Hilton, "the poor little Cuban blogger who hit it big." Is that to imply that all of the other vignettes and characters are also completely real? I was just confused by the inclusion of this not-even-a-little-bit-subtle story. It was distracting for me. Plus I would never feel sorry for Perez Hilton. He hangs out in a coffee shop and rips on people. I am not sorry he got fired from one of his jobs and gets sued all the time. He gossips for a living!
Something I don't take issue with that I know many other people do is Frey's writing style. Sometimes I had to reread a sentence because of the lack of punctuation but I liked the sense of urgency it instilled in me as the reader. I wanted to find out what the characters would do next.
However, I think it would have been to Frey's advantage to stick to the five characters who had the biggest stories. Some of the ones that show up and disappear didn't have an affect on me or seem to fit into the story very well.
The biggest issue I have with this book is the random inclusion and discription of Mario Lavanderia or Perez Hilton. Frey seems to describe characters that are loosely based on Hollywood/LA rumors and stereotypes. In this instances, he very clearly described Perez Hilton, "the poor little Cuban blogger who hit it big." Is that to imply that all of the other vignettes and characters are also completely real? I was just confused by the inclusion of this not-even-a-little-bit-subtle story. It was distracting for me. Plus I would never feel sorry for Perez Hilton. He hangs out in a coffee shop and rips on people. I am not sorry he got fired from one of his jobs and gets sued all the time. He gossips for a living!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 25, 2008
Only got halfway through and had to return it - so I've requested it again to finish it! So far, this is one of my favorite books of 2008!
Update: Yep, this is definitely one of my favorite books I've read this year. I was completely engrossed in this one, I just loved everything about it. It starts out with random stories about people who are in LA, moving to LA - some of them he wraps up so you know they're not going to be recurring characters, and others he just lets the subject drop and goes onto something else. Between chapters there are little blurbs of facts about LA from it's founding right up until the 1990's. The first half of the book is more like short stories with some random facts thrown in. The middle of the book are chapters of random facts about all sorts of things in LA, with a bit of stories of the recurring characters in there. Then towards the end we're brought back to the characters that he's decided to tell us about all through the book, more random facts and a handful more short stories about people who have lived/moved to LA. I just found the whole thing SO interesting, I can't even explain why.
I liked the style of his writing...it was blunt, there wasn't proper punctuation, he repeated himself a lot. It just worked in this novel (other novels I've hated for the same reasons).
My only complaint about the whole book, which I decided didn't merit a whole star being taken off, was that he would randomly decide to start saying the "F" word and would say it 10 or more times in about 5 sentences, then lay off it again for several more chapters. Where he inserted it, it wasn't really necessary. I found that annoying, like he'd realized he hadn't sworn enough in the last 10 chapters, so he threw a whole bunch in to fill his quota and then continued on.
Update: Yep, this is definitely one of my favorite books I've read this year. I was completely engrossed in this one, I just loved everything about it. It starts out with random stories about people who are in LA, moving to LA - some of them he wraps up so you know they're not going to be recurring characters, and others he just lets the subject drop and goes onto something else. Between chapters there are little blurbs of facts about LA from it's founding right up until the 1990's. The first half of the book is more like short stories with some random facts thrown in. The middle of the book are chapters of random facts about all sorts of things in LA, with a bit of stories of the recurring characters in there. Then towards the end we're brought back to the characters that he's decided to tell us about all through the book, more random facts and a handful more short stories about people who have lived/moved to LA. I just found the whole thing SO interesting, I can't even explain why.
I liked the style of his writing...it was blunt, there wasn't proper punctuation, he repeated himself a lot. It just worked in this novel (other novels I've hated for the same reasons).
My only complaint about the whole book, which I decided didn't merit a whole star being taken off, was that he would randomly decide to start saying the "F" word and would say it 10 or more times in about 5 sentences, then lay off it again for several more chapters. Where he inserted it, it wasn't really necessary. I found that annoying, like he'd realized he hadn't sworn enough in the last 10 chapters, so he threw a whole bunch in to fill his quota and then continued on.
May 21, 2008
Janet Maslin, who I generally mock, tricked me into thinking that this was going to be brilliant. But, then, halfway through, I remembered that Janet Maslin is kind of a dingbat most of the time. And she was wrong about this book. It has its moments. But it is full of stupid filler crap that I just started skipping by the end. If he would just stick with simple storytelling, like he did in A Million Little Pieces, which I know is NOT HIP to like, but I did like it regardless of its truth or untruth it is a GOOD STORY. And this was undeveloped and weak and full of stupid factoids. I think rule #1 of novel writing is: they should never, ever have factoids.
August 7, 2017
Sognando California? Ma per carità!
Bello bello. (4,5 stelline. 9/10) Però. Ho letto l'edizione elettronica, (comprata e regolarmente pagata, per chiarire!) e come ho sperimentato più volte l'impaginazione negli ebook è spesso fatta coi piedi o con altre parti anatomiche situate dalla vita in giù. Frey ha una scrittura molto originale, usa la punteggiatura in modo personalissimo, gli "a capo" danno il ritmo ai dialoghi e al racconto, ritmo che cambia a seconda delle situazioni narrate e non sono lì per allungare il brodo. Ecco, ogni tanto un "a capo" va a farfalle. Scelta dell'autore o impaginazione cialtrona? Quelle virgole ballerine sono di Frey, sicuramente. Tutte? Scusate, ma non è un dettaglio da Dottoressa Perfettini. Sgrunt! Resta comunque un gran bel libro, al punto che quasi quasi chisseneimporta degli a capo, il linguaggio è talmente squinternato di suo che uno in più uno in meno... però mi piacerebbe sapere se sono suoi o no.
Bello bello. (4,5 stelline. 9/10) Però. Ho letto l'edizione elettronica, (comprata e regolarmente pagata, per chiarire!) e come ho sperimentato più volte l'impaginazione negli ebook è spesso fatta coi piedi o con altre parti anatomiche situate dalla vita in giù. Frey ha una scrittura molto originale, usa la punteggiatura in modo personalissimo, gli "a capo" danno il ritmo ai dialoghi e al racconto, ritmo che cambia a seconda delle situazioni narrate e non sono lì per allungare il brodo. Ecco, ogni tanto un "a capo" va a farfalle. Scelta dell'autore o impaginazione cialtrona? Quelle virgole ballerine sono di Frey, sicuramente. Tutte? Scusate, ma non è un dettaglio da Dottoressa Perfettini. Sgrunt! Resta comunque un gran bel libro, al punto che quasi quasi chisseneimporta degli a capo, il linguaggio è talmente squinternato di suo che uno in più uno in meno... però mi piacerebbe sapere se sono suoi o no.
September 24, 2019
Fucked-up and dark and depressing and heartbreaking and beautiful and haunting and amazing all at the same time. Truly a special novel that I cannot recommend enough. Won't make you ever want to go to LA though.
February 12, 2022
I love this author
June 8, 2010
James Frey's "Bright Shiny Morning" is daunting at onset. More a character study of the city of Los Angeles than anything, it alternates constantly on a whim between a series of ongoing tales, raw journalistic-style facts (if they are indeed facts) and encapsulated glimpses of every type of life in the city you could imagine.
At first this approach can be disorienting, and I found myself wondering if any thread could be found to follow through this urban literary maze. Although four stories do finally emerge and continue throughout the novel to a satisfying (if not frustrating) conclusion, the book could probably be best understood to be like a Picasso, ugly and beautiful at the same time in its startling maze of angles and perspectives. With a subject as multi-sided and multifaceted as the city of Los Angeles, to approach it in any other way could not give a true sense of the whole.
In "Bright Shiny Morning", Frey has made a bold attempt at creating a world that is so like the intricate, multi-cultural, complex real life Los Angeles, it's really impossible to know where the facts stop and the fiction starts. One story in the novel read suspiciously like the biography of the blogger and self-made-self-promoting celeb Perez Hilton, so close that I could not tell if it was Perez himself or a alternate-universe echo. The attention to the details is also astounding, as Frey skips around to nearly every corner of the city and addresses nearly every locale and archetype as well as some you would have never have thought of. Because of this, the novel could almost be given to visiting tourists as a guidebook.
Contemporary novels like "Bright Shiny Morning" that employ a coolly detached narration style always walk a thin line. They can have power in expressing the effect of modern life such as in the novels of Don Delillo. This can also backfire, causing the reader to be unable to connect or care about the fates of the characters contained within. Thankfully this is not the case here, and every time the style of the book seems like it might overwhelm the story, Frey lands a heartbreaking, emotional blow.
If you love Los Angeles, or if you are interested in Los Angeles, "Bright Shiny Morning" is an important contemporary examination into the character of the city so many love, hate and love to hate. Although not without its flaws, Frey's novel could easily companion similar work by John Fante, Charles Bukowski & Nathaniel West.
At first this approach can be disorienting, and I found myself wondering if any thread could be found to follow through this urban literary maze. Although four stories do finally emerge and continue throughout the novel to a satisfying (if not frustrating) conclusion, the book could probably be best understood to be like a Picasso, ugly and beautiful at the same time in its startling maze of angles and perspectives. With a subject as multi-sided and multifaceted as the city of Los Angeles, to approach it in any other way could not give a true sense of the whole.
In "Bright Shiny Morning", Frey has made a bold attempt at creating a world that is so like the intricate, multi-cultural, complex real life Los Angeles, it's really impossible to know where the facts stop and the fiction starts. One story in the novel read suspiciously like the biography of the blogger and self-made-self-promoting celeb Perez Hilton, so close that I could not tell if it was Perez himself or a alternate-universe echo. The attention to the details is also astounding, as Frey skips around to nearly every corner of the city and addresses nearly every locale and archetype as well as some you would have never have thought of. Because of this, the novel could almost be given to visiting tourists as a guidebook.
Contemporary novels like "Bright Shiny Morning" that employ a coolly detached narration style always walk a thin line. They can have power in expressing the effect of modern life such as in the novels of Don Delillo. This can also backfire, causing the reader to be unable to connect or care about the fates of the characters contained within. Thankfully this is not the case here, and every time the style of the book seems like it might overwhelm the story, Frey lands a heartbreaking, emotional blow.
If you love Los Angeles, or if you are interested in Los Angeles, "Bright Shiny Morning" is an important contemporary examination into the character of the city so many love, hate and love to hate. Although not without its flaws, Frey's novel could easily companion similar work by John Fante, Charles Bukowski & Nathaniel West.
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