Glamorama - Softcover

Ellis, Bret Easton

3.53

23,417 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330372092 ISBN 13: 9780330372091

Publisher: Picador, 1999

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A man in what is recognizably New York is drawn into a shadowy looking-glass of that society and then finds himself trapped on the other side, in a much darker place where fame and terrorism, and family and politics, are inextricably linked and sometimes indistinguishable.

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Review:

Glamorama is a satirical mass-murder opus more ambitious than Ellis's 1990 American Psycho. It starts as a spritz-of-consciousness romp about kid-club entrepreneur Victor Ward, "the It boy of the moment," an actor/model up for Flatliners II. Ellis has perfect pitch for glam-speak, and he gives nightlife the fizz, pace, and shimmer it lacks in drab reality. Anyone could cite the right celeb names and tunes; but like a rock-polishing machine, his prose gives literary sheen to fame-chasing air-kissers. He's coldly funny: when Victor's girl tries to argue him out of a break up, she angrily snorts six bumps of coke, stops, mutters, "Wrong vial," snorts four corrective doses from whatever she has in her other fist, then objects to a rival at the party wearing the same dress she's wearing.

You had to be there; Ellis makes you feel you are. But such satire is a very smart bomb targeting a very large barn. Models' status anxiety doesn't merit Ellis's Tom Wolfe-esque expertise. Glamorama gets better when Victor gets drafted into a mysterious group of model/terrorists who bomb 747s and the Ritz in Paris, wearing Kevlar-lined Armani suits. Oh, they still behave like shallow snobs, pronouncing "cool" as if it had 12 "o"s, but now when somebody swills Cristal, it's apt to be poisoned, to horrific effect, which Ellis expertly describes. His enfant-terrible debut Less Than Zero aped Joan Didion. Now Ellis has grown into a lesser Don DeLillo--and that's high praise. --Tim Appelo

Review:

"Ellis is fast becoming a writer of real American genius." -"GQ"
"His best work to date....He remains a laser-precise satirist but the wit now dominates." -"Esquire"

"Arguably the novel of the 1990's ... Glamorama should establish Ellis as the most ambitious and fearless writer of his generation.... It is perfectly of out time ... a must read." --"The Settle Times"
"Impeccable... cold and pitiless and modern.... [Ellis] captures a cultural moment of racial dandyhood, where distinctions of sexuality seem less important that whether you look like a model and wear Prada." --"The Village Voice"
"Compelling and scary. A political thriller bursting with conspiracies, double agents and international terrorism. Glamorama is like a Semtex attack on our superficialities." --"The Face
"
"Ellis is fast becoming a writer of real American genius." --"GQ"
"His best work to date.... He remains a laser-precise satirist but the wit now dominates." --"Esquire
"

Arguably the novel of the 1990 s Glamorama should establish Ellis as the most ambitious and fearless writer of his generation . It is perfectly of out time a must read. The Settle Times
Impeccable cold and pitiless and modern. [Ellis] captures a cultural moment of racial dandyhood, where distinctions of sexuality seem less important that whether you look like a model and wear Prada. The Village Voice
Compelling and scary. A political thriller bursting with conspiracies, double agents and international terrorism. Glamorama is like a Semtex attack on our superficialities. The Face

"Ellis is fast becoming a writer of real American genius. GQ
"His best work to date.... He remains a laser-precise satirist but the wit now dominates. Esquire
"

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