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Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey
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Bright Shiny Morning (edition 2009)

by James Frey

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1,0873918,502 (3.6)15
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.… (more)
Member:GillT
Title:Bright Shiny Morning
Authors:James Frey
Info:John Murray (2009), Paperback, 560 pages
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Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey

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Showing 1-5 of 37 (next | show all)
Great stories (though depressing) and great writing.

There were sections on facts about LA interspersed in the stories. In most cases the facts were interesting, “and fun. REALLY fucking fun”, but in some cases they went on and on and became almost hypnotic where I zoned out and would have to bring my attention back to the commonality of all these tragedies. Well done, Frey.

I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because I’m not sure I would recommend this to my friends. Right now, I never want to visit LA thanks to this book and that’s not a feeling I want to spread.

Also, the music in the audiobook was really annoying and sometimes made it hard to hear the story. Not sure what the producers were thinking on that one. ( )
  pmichaud | Dec 21, 2020 |
Five star book this.
This is a novel all about Los Angeles and an assortment of characters throw in for good measure.
These characters are Old Joe a tramp who drinks Chablis he is only 39 looks to be in his 70s
Amberton a Hollywood top actor who is secretly gay and obsessed by his agent.
Esperanza born in the USA to Mexican parents she takes a job cleaning for a horrible old woman.
Dyaln and Maddie two young runaways they are in love and starting to start out fresh but find it tough.
None of these stories combine all loose and jog along at their own pace. I felt like I got to know each of these characters and cared what happened to them.

Lots of random facts about LA thrown in throughout this book.
I really enjoyed this. ( )
  Daftboy1 | Jan 8, 2019 |
An interesting book- in that it has a strange use of punctuation - or lack of it. (Like no comma in the title) The book varies between stories of people in LA and the history of LA (which I think is non-fiction). No real rhyme or reason to the book but several story threads followed throughout the book while several were left dangling. No resolution to the stories were provided, but in a way they were resolved. All in all I really enjoyed it! ( )
  camplakejewel | Sep 21, 2017 |
Wow, I had the best time with this big exuberant book, a fact-fiction guide to Los Angeles that sprawls like the city itself across 400+ pages and if you haven't been, after reading this you won't need to, or possibly won't want to.

It's a series of short stories - some less than a page long - covering the lives of LA residents - actors, art dealers, journalists, gangsters, immigrants, mini-golf proprietors, rough sleepers...there is barely a facet he doesn't cover in some way or another. I'm not normally a fan of short stories, but the skill of this author is in making the reader care about his characters within seconds. I can't explain why, but it's a magic ingredient and he's got it. Of the many hundreds of characters met within the course of the book, most will not be encountered again, but four storylines are continued at intervals throughout the book. Three are ramped up to a moment of high tension towards the end, and it was only at this point that I slightly resented the intervening fact chapters, lists and so on that prevented me finding out what happened next.

Like so many other books these days, this one eschews speech marks ( and commas too for the most part). I've whinged many a time about authors who do this, and normally I'd take at least one star off the rating, but there were times when I thought it helped the story along. In conversations between two people, you can always figure out who's speaking, and I found I was gliding effortlessly through the prose as though on skates - it was good to be free of the million-and-one synonyms for "said" and the intrusive descriptions of facial contortions you get with some books (yes Twilight I'm talking about you).

Where this technique falls down is where you have more than two people in a conversations, and let's face it, it does happen from time to time. Then it gets really complicated. The author chooses to precede speech with the speaker's name, rather like a play, but the name appears on the line above, and it gets doubly confusing if a person speaks another person's name. It all leads me back to thinking speech marks are there for a reason, and all these authors trying to reinvent the wheel - or trying to de-invent it, or pretend we never needed the damned wheel in the first place - should just stop it. But that's just my opinion, and I'm not taking any stars off my rating because I loved loved loved this book, faults and all. ( )
  jayne_charles | Nov 14, 2016 |
It sucks that I have to write a negative review about James Frey.

It especially sucks because I loved A Million Little Pieces & My Friend Leonard so much. Far and away, my favorite two books I've read in the past year have been those two. Despite all the controversy and all the mud that has been slung (is that even a word?) Frey's way - I still LOVED those two books. Nothing that I've read up to this point has gotten such a reaction out of me. That being said, enough about those two books, you can read my review here if you want. On to Bright Shiny Morning.

After dealing with all the controversy stemming from his "autobiographies" - Frey took his first stab at the world of storytelling - something that wasn't partially based on real life with 2008's Bright Shiny Morning. Frey always wanted to write about LA, he said that there really was never a proper treatment given to a place he called home for part of his adult life. Granted, we all hear about LA and its glitz and glamour on a daily basis through the entertainment industry but Frey wanted to show another side of Hollywood - a darker side.

Book Summary: 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.

Along with those short stories - Frey decides to throw in some historical events in the development of the city as well as some fun and "not-so-fun" facts about Los Angeles. While I can certainly give Frey an "A for effort", the whole book feels messy and all over the place. I respect his attempt to revive his career after everything came tumbling down when Oprah tore him a new one on national television, however, I felt extremely let down in the end. Perhaps it's the fact that a number of the characters really weren't given proper time to develop - it's always a downside of a short story compilation - It's a hurdle to say the least.

That being said, the whole book isn't "awful" per say, there were some "bright" spots (pun completely intended). His short story about the two nineteen year olds was particularly great - the best one of the bunch. I felt so strongly for that story that it could have been a full novel itself. The fun facts were indeed, "fun", and I felt like I learned something in regards to the blurbs about the city's development.

In the end however, the bad simply outweighs the good. Given my general feeling about Bright Shiny Morning, I still remain positive about his next outing, Illumination. Illumination is a story about the resurrection of Jesus Christ as he's depicted as a homeless man on the streets of New York City - sounds interesting to say the least. I'm just happy that he wasn't discouraged after all the controversy and continued to write. The man is talented - there is no doubt - and I'm happy he stuck around. ( )
1 vote branimal | Apr 1, 2014 |
Showing 1-5 of 37 (next | show all)
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Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World. -- Christopher Columbus, 1493
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On September 4, 1781, a group of forty-four men, women and children who call themselves the Pobladores established a settlement on land that is near the center of contemporary Los Angeles.
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He said she would have a better life the sun shining every day more free time less stress she said she would feel like she had wasted a decade trying to get to the major leagues only to demote herself once she got into them.
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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.

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