Bright Shiny Morning - Hardcover

Frey, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1848540434 ISBN 13: 9781848540439

Publisher: John Murray, 2008

Synopsis

Welcome to LA. City of contradictions.

It is home to movie stars and down-and-outs. Palm-lined beaches and gridlock. Shopping sprees and gun sprees.

Bright Shiny Morning takes a wild ride through the ultimate metropolis, where glittering excess rubs shoulders with seedy depravity. Frey's trademark filmic snapshots zoom in on the parallel lives of diverse characters, bringing their egos and ideals, hopes and despairs, anxieties and absurdities vividly to life.

Some suffer, like the otherworldly wino who tries to save a spoilt teenage runaway. Others gain, like the canny talent agent who turns sexual harassment to blackmailing advantage. Some are loaded, or grounded, and have luck on their side. Others, like the countless actresses-turned-hookers, or schoolboys-turned-gangsters, are doomed.

About this title

Review:

'It's a book that smacks of grandiosity, is exasperating but engrossing and, despite its oddities of punctuation and bleak minimalist style, is a riveting read' (New Books)

'Sprawling as the city itself, and shows the flipside to the American dream' (GQ)

An immaculately written novel about a kaleidoscope of characters living in LA (Tatler)

'At 500 pages, it is totally gripping throughout -- Frey may have upset a few people, but who cares when he writes like this?' (Bookseller)

'Frey clearly has a knack for telling tales - this story of interweaving, never-meeting strangers in LA is an engrossing read' (The Times)

'Its absorbing narrative confirms Frey as a master storyteller' (Gay Times)

'Frey's trademark filmic snapshots zoom in on the parallel lives of diverse characters, bringing their egos and ideals, hopes and despairs, anxieties and absurdities vividly to life' (Yorkshire Evening Post)

Bright Shiny Morning reads quickly, has great dialogue and some expertly dramatic moments, teaches you more about L.A than you ever knew (Washington Post)

'A sprawling, ambitious novel about Los Angeles, written with all the broad-stroke energy that was so irresistible to readers in A Million Little Pieces' (Vanity Fair)

'An absolute triumph of a novel. In fact it's so good that it makes Frey's real-life resurrection from crooked biographer to great American novelist far more impressive ... Frey, a natural novelist to his fingertips, hits the deeper truths with this honest, vibrant and tender portrait of Los Angeles and the American dream ...It can be no exaggeration to say that Bright Shiny Morning amounts to the literary come-back of the decade ... James Frey is probably one of the finest and most important writers to have emerged in recent years' (Irvine Welsh, Guardian)

Book Description:

A bold and dazzling new story from the controversial creator of A Million Little Pieces

About this edition

• Publisher: John Murray
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1848540434
• ISBN 13: 9781848540439
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 528