RSS FeedsJames Frey's "Bright Shiny Morning: A Novel"
What do you think about James Frey getting a second chance from the publishing world, this time with a novel?
1.
I'm surprised that no one in a review I've read thus far has made the comparison to Gay Taleses' brilliant story: New York is a City of Things Unnoticed. Seems like an unnoticed rip-off to me.
2. WELL..... THIS IS ONE CRITIC'S POINT IF VIEW. I WILL READ THIS BOOK .
3. I'm reading it now and love it. It's an easy read with short chapters. Good for James Frey!!!
4. Frey is the worst writer to ever be published.
5. Most writers don't even get their first chance. James Frey has received two. Between a positive review of a novel set in LA by a New York paper and a negative one by a LA paper, I'll stick with the local one. After all, Mr. Frey fooled everybody with an exaggerated life he made for himself because he was supposed to be the expert. Now, he can tell those who don't live in Los Angeles what that city is all about, right?
6. I was given the unfortunate assignment of reviewing this book for a small local magazine. David Ulin is dead-on in his critique - a completely horrible book: uninformed, unimaginative, badly-written. Even worse is Frey's interview in Vanity Fair, where he reveals himself to be a complete jerk.
7. Compare this book to Day of the Locust by Nathaniel West. Both are in Los Angeles and have characters lacking depth, characters with a sense of loneliness and alienation. Their superficiality is like the city itself. Like many people, they have unfulfilled fantasies and dreams and live their largely meaningless lives. A Million Little Pieces was a good read, emotive and interesting. James Frey immerses you in his settings. He can write. I will give this book a try.
8. I'm glad you reviewed this. David. It deserves attention. Everyone wondered where Frey --an extremely successful writer before the Oprah execution-- could go. I was moved by other reviews which claimed he'd risen to the challenge and liked the fact that he'd moved away from putative memoir into complete fiction, a better place for his talent to move people. Apparently his superficial need for success and public approval overwhelm his novelist pretensions. Too bad. L.A. deserves good written stories to supplement all the bad and superficial films made about it. As you know it is a strange beast. Thanks.
9. A Million Little Pieces is one of my favorite books to date. So it wasn't completely true. SO? Thats the beauty of writing, it lets you loose yourself in the words...There is no way James Frey would have been able to write that book with such a feeling of creditability or be it so emotionally moving, with out the experiences he had...Bright Shiny Morning i bet will be excellent to...Leave the hoo-haa in the past,and embrace a new book:) Taking thins too seriously is bad for the soul...if you dont agree talk to my bum:D xx
10. This is the sort of review that, I suspect, will eventually embarrass the Los Angeles Times, and they shouldn't have printed it. It's a shallow, ill-considered, tone-deaf hatchet piece. It selects a rather random set of examples and details in trying to make its case, makes no effort at understanding their connection to or position within the narrative, and willfully misunderstands and misrepresents both the style and the substance of the novel. Frey has written, in my opinion, the great Los Angeles novel. Frey has done in some ways for Los Angeles what Joyce did for Dublin.
Submitted by: Kim
2. WELL..... THIS IS ONE CRITIC'S POINT IF VIEW. I WILL READ THIS BOOK .
Submitted by: JEWISHPRINCESS
3. I'm reading it now and love it. It's an easy read with short chapters. Good for James Frey!!!
Submitted by: Laey Di
4. Frey is the worst writer to ever be published.
Submitted by: HC
5. Most writers don't even get their first chance. James Frey has received two. Between a positive review of a novel set in LA by a New York paper and a negative one by a LA paper, I'll stick with the local one. After all, Mr. Frey fooled everybody with an exaggerated life he made for himself because he was supposed to be the expert. Now, he can tell those who don't live in Los Angeles what that city is all about, right?
Submitted by: Tomas Sancio
6. I was given the unfortunate assignment of reviewing this book for a small local magazine. David Ulin is dead-on in his critique - a completely horrible book: uninformed, unimaginative, badly-written. Even worse is Frey's interview in Vanity Fair, where he reveals himself to be a complete jerk.
Submitted by: Nora
7. Compare this book to Day of the Locust by Nathaniel West. Both are in Los Angeles and have characters lacking depth, characters with a sense of loneliness and alienation. Their superficiality is like the city itself. Like many people, they have unfulfilled fantasies and dreams and live their largely meaningless lives. A Million Little Pieces was a good read, emotive and interesting. James Frey immerses you in his settings. He can write. I will give this book a try.
Submitted by: Paul M Schwartz
8. I'm glad you reviewed this. David. It deserves attention. Everyone wondered where Frey --an extremely successful writer before the Oprah execution-- could go. I was moved by other reviews which claimed he'd risen to the challenge and liked the fact that he'd moved away from putative memoir into complete fiction, a better place for his talent to move people. Apparently his superficial need for success and public approval overwhelm his novelist pretensions. Too bad. L.A. deserves good written stories to supplement all the bad and superficial films made about it. As you know it is a strange beast. Thanks.
Submitted by: Giles Slade
9. A Million Little Pieces is one of my favorite books to date. So it wasn't completely true. SO? Thats the beauty of writing, it lets you loose yourself in the words...There is no way James Frey would have been able to write that book with such a feeling of creditability or be it so emotionally moving, with out the experiences he had...Bright Shiny Morning i bet will be excellent to...Leave the hoo-haa in the past,and embrace a new book:) Taking thins too seriously is bad for the soul...if you dont agree talk to my bum:D xx
Submitted by: UK STAND UP
10. This is the sort of review that, I suspect, will eventually embarrass the Los Angeles Times, and they shouldn't have printed it. It's a shallow, ill-considered, tone-deaf hatchet piece. It selects a rather random set of examples and details in trying to make its case, makes no effort at understanding their connection to or position within the narrative, and willfully misunderstands and misrepresents both the style and the substance of the novel. Frey has written, in my opinion, the great Los Angeles novel. Frey has done in some ways for Los Angeles what Joyce did for Dublin.
Submitted by: revoltaire