|
Journal Entry 1 by HoserLauren from Toronto, Ontario Canada on Saturday, July 26, 2008
 I received this to review from Harper Collins.
From Chapters:
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.
|
|
Journal Entry 2 by HoserLauren from Toronto, Ontario Canada on Monday, August 04, 2008
Frey is the controversial author of A Million Little Pieces and comes back for his third novel, and first try at fiction. This book has Los Angeles as a character as much as the novel is set in LA. In the beginning, we get many stories of people living in LA. Artists, immigrants, homeless, movie stars, runaways, bloggers, gang members, any typical story to LA is mentioned in this book.
Frey focuses on four separate story lines: a closet homosexual who happens to be one of the biggest movie stars in the world, a young couple who run away from their home and come to LA to try and turn a new leaf without any abuse from their parents, a young woman born in America to Mexican who has abnormally large thighs, and a homeless man who lives in a washroom on Venice Beach.
Some of the main characters are pretty easy to relate to, others aren't, but I think that's the point. The characters all have their flaws though, but you don't necessarily want them to get away with everything they try.
The rest is just background noise, like commercials in between your favourite soap opera. Sure the facts about LA and the side stories are interesting, but you get wrapped up in the main stories and you just want to find out what happens next. It was a bit hard to remember who was who at the beginning, but you eventually remember and the pages start turning until you're done!
|
|
Journal Entry 4 by AceofHearts from Mississauga, Ontario Canada on Wednesday, December 03, 2008
This work of fiction is about L.A. It is partly non-fiction. There are some very interesting tidbits; such as a male boss can not be alone in a room with a female sub-ordinate. There are a lot of vignettes about the people who reside in L.A.
A homeless man who is allowed to live in a washroom on Venice Beach tries to help a young female out with her problems. A male big box movie star is not all what he seems. He is a homosexual trying to appear as a loving family man. Frey shows how the rich and powerful can abuse the system and the people who work for them. A young woman of Mexican descent and huge thighs goes to work as a domestic. She is treated like a Mexican illegal but ends up thumbing her nose at her employer by falling in love with her son. A young couple run away from home to L.A. only to end up working for gang members. They seem never to catch a break.
I found the book very interesting and hard to put down.
|
Bright Shiny Morning
