Glamorama
by Bret Easton Ellis
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Fiction. Literature. HTML:The author of American Psycho and Less Than Zero continues to shock and haunt us with his incisive and brilliant dissection of the modern world. In his most ambitious and gripping book yet, Bret Easton Ellis takes our celebrity obsessed culture and increases the volume exponentially.Set in 90s Manhattan, Victor Ward, a model with perfect abs and all the right friends, is seen and photographed everywhere, even in places he hasn't been and with people he doesn't show more know. He's living with one beautiful model and having an affair with another onthe eve of opening the trendiest nightclub in New York City history. And now it's time to move to the next stage. But the future he gets is not the one he had in mind.
With the same deft satire and savage wit he has brought to his other fiction, Bret Ellis gets beyond the facade and introduces us, unsparingly, to what we always feared was behind it. Glamorama shows us a shadowy... show less
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This is my second book by Easton Ellis and I should know by now that it will make me squirm. There are some particularly gruesome scenes that make gore horror seem like a walk in the park - but these are my limitations that don't necessarily take away from the book itself. The construction from the incredibly frivolous world of celebrities to the sophisticated international espionage scene is quite compelling and the book picks up in pace to the point where the 500+ pages actually fly by.
I had trouble with the plot, but this sense of imbalance is what makes this story powerful. Added to this is the imagery of coldness and confetti, the music and the smells, which really appeal to all sense and the reader is overwhelmed by glitz and show more fear.
One thing is certain: this book will leave no one indifferent. show less
I had trouble with the plot, but this sense of imbalance is what makes this story powerful. Added to this is the imagery of coldness and confetti, the music and the smells, which really appeal to all sense and the reader is overwhelmed by glitz and show more fear.
One thing is certain: this book will leave no one indifferent. show less
Whereas I found ‘American Psycho’ an easy and absorbing read, I found this much harder work. Although rewarding in the end it took a while to get into. The part on the cruise ship became confusing for me and I was uncertain at times when we were focusing on a real plot or not. I enjoyed the concept of the camera crew, always having your life in the spot life etc but then I felt it lost something. If you don’t reflect too much and try to analyse as you are reading it then this is a great read. I found myself trying to link characters together and once all the pieces of the jigsaw started to fall into place it was as if one of them wasn’t quite right and you had to start all over again. However, it is a clever thriller and you show more never know which character to trust. Your ideas are continually blown to pieces as another piece of the puzzle is unravelled.
I loved the chapters going down in number, like a countdown. But a countdown to what exactly? A new script, a new scene, a new conspiracy? Both clever and intriguing to read this novel rather surprisingly sucked me in and even though at times I didn’t have the foggiest idea what was going on, I was in the full long journey. It’s difficult to work out Victor with his change of surnames – can we change our identity so easily and become someone different? Or is it something new to hide behind, to prevent us from having to reveal what lurks underneath the skin? Bret Easton Ellis takes celebrity culture and slowly picks away at it to let us see what exactly goes on behind the images we see on screen and in print.
I’ve had this book lounging on my shelves for quite a few years now, (6 to be exact) and I finally decided it needed to be read. I wish I’d read it sooner! Although not quite five stars for me, I’d happily recommend this novel and I certainly look forward to reading the other Ellis novel I own – The Rules of Attraction. It’s a clever book and it’s one that needs time devoting to it. You can’t pick this up and then put it one side whilst you read another. It’ll keep reminding you that it needs to be read! Devote some time to it and you will be rewarded with an intelligent and interesting masterpiece. show less
I loved the chapters going down in number, like a countdown. But a countdown to what exactly? A new script, a new scene, a new conspiracy? Both clever and intriguing to read this novel rather surprisingly sucked me in and even though at times I didn’t have the foggiest idea what was going on, I was in the full long journey. It’s difficult to work out Victor with his change of surnames – can we change our identity so easily and become someone different? Or is it something new to hide behind, to prevent us from having to reveal what lurks underneath the skin? Bret Easton Ellis takes celebrity culture and slowly picks away at it to let us see what exactly goes on behind the images we see on screen and in print.
I’ve had this book lounging on my shelves for quite a few years now, (6 to be exact) and I finally decided it needed to be read. I wish I’d read it sooner! Although not quite five stars for me, I’d happily recommend this novel and I certainly look forward to reading the other Ellis novel I own – The Rules of Attraction. It’s a clever book and it’s one that needs time devoting to it. You can’t pick this up and then put it one side whilst you read another. It’ll keep reminding you that it needs to be read! Devote some time to it and you will be rewarded with an intelligent and interesting masterpiece. show less
Ice on walls, film crews, piles and piles and piles of confetti (and intestines)…
I was 50/50 about Glamorama - I found the first chunk of the book, with its endless namedropping, looooooooong lists of celebrities, incredibly unloveable 'hero' and stifling banality rather difficult to get through but the sense of jaded detachment pervading the first half works in that it throws the second half into such stark contrast. Once the plot starts to unfold the book shifts up a gear, Victor becomes more human and you begin to feel for him... and the violence when it comes is genuinely shocking (and occasionally stomach-turning).
A challenging read - by turns confusing, funny, sinister, infuriating, sickening, tedious and gripping.
I was 50/50 about Glamorama - I found the first chunk of the book, with its endless namedropping, looooooooong lists of celebrities, incredibly unloveable 'hero' and stifling banality rather difficult to get through but the sense of jaded detachment pervading the first half works in that it throws the second half into such stark contrast. Once the plot starts to unfold the book shifts up a gear, Victor becomes more human and you begin to feel for him... and the violence when it comes is genuinely shocking (and occasionally stomach-turning).
A challenging read - by turns confusing, funny, sinister, infuriating, sickening, tedious and gripping.
At first I didn't this book was too telling of the '90's'. But the more I read and the deeper I got into it (the guzzling of Snapple, the celebrity obsession tinged with the lackluster desire to apply 'substance' to the incredibly hollow world that Ellis himself detailed in American Psycho) the more I appreciated the nuance and care that this story was constructed with. Like a bizarro mirror of American Psycho where instead of the apparent "hero" is alone in an isolating world lashing out to no effect. Here he's now a part of the group at large and finding that they're just as bad, actually much worse, then he could ever imagine. Great book and it's actually made a little funnier when compared to Zoolander...apparently there was some show more bad blood between the respective writers from this book and the movie. Hard to imagine Stiller or frankly, any, actor pulling off the role of Victor Ward (Johnson), but then, they also said American Psycho was unfilmable... show less
More of the yuppie creepfest that was [American Psycho] and [Lunar Park], this time with a sublimely vacuous model staggering into a strange intrigue with flashes of morbid violence. The hallucinatory brandscape of Victor Ward's unsteady world hides the same brutality in its hyper-manicured environment as those other two books; I'm not sure if this is the only vibe Ellis does, but it is equally unsettling in each of the three, and given a great foil in Victor, who spouts some of the best nonsense ever on his way through a slowly unfolding drama.
I don't know what deep importance is going on in BEE's writing that might be lost on me, but I appreciate his weird horror and his humor, too. This one took a while but it was worth it.
I don't know what deep importance is going on in BEE's writing that might be lost on me, but I appreciate his weird horror and his humor, too. This one took a while but it was worth it.
Glamorama, is pretty darn good. At first it was another less then zero type, the whole fake/vacant/handsome/rich/self-absorbed celebrity type of folks…. Then midway thru the novel it does a complete 180, and the good looking supermodels all become psychotic terrorists who mask their mass destruction by having film directors videotape it and outsiders believe its all part a hollywood film set!
And I realize this review probably makes no sense. LOL. I am halfway through. I admit, I was JUST ABOUT to give up on this novel, but I had hope in Ellis he would put a wicked spin on things, and he did, thank god!
And I realize this review probably makes no sense. LOL. I am halfway through. I admit, I was JUST ABOUT to give up on this novel, but I had hope in Ellis he would put a wicked spin on things, and he did, thank god!
It took me longer than I care to admit to actually read this book, considering how much I loved American Psycho. Sadly, this was not the case with this book.
First of all, I was very confused about what this book was actually about? I see certain similar trends between this and American Psycho – the obsession with materialistic details, the way of talking about celebrities and pop culture. I also loved how Patrick Bateman and his little brother Sean both feature briefly in this novel. But for most of the first 250 pages or so of the novel I was very confused about what was actually happening.
And then it really kicked off.
Glamorama is about a young model named Victor Ward (his real name is Victor Johnson) who is trying to make it big show more in the world using his good looks and acting skills. Most of the first part of the novel is Victor having multiple affairs while trying to keep a relationship afloat, and opening a swanky new club in New York while avoiding the tabloid press and a certain story that could get him into a lot of trouble. It’s during this first part of the novel that we learn about F Palakon, a man who has reached out to Victor and wants to hire him to find someone; this someone happens to be an ex-classmate of Victor when he attended university, and has last been spotted in London. Victor obliges, happy to get away from the drama that his life is headed towards, only for his life to go all kinds of pear-shaped when he actually goes on this mission.
From the beginning of the novel there are hints that what Victor is experiencing is weird, or that he might not actually be the real Victor. Remember how in American Psycho there was this theme about how none of the characters remember what any of the other characters look like or who they are coz they’re too self-absorbed to care? There’s a hint of that in this novel, only here people keep telling victor that they last spoke to him in a certain city or at a certain club, but he insists that he was never at those events, even though nobody believes him. As the novel progresses, this part becomes more and more prominent.
Victor ends up embroiled in a terrorist cell that are planting bombs across many major European cities and landmarks and just causing chaos. There doesn’t seem to be an actual aim to the whole thing beyond just causing chaos – on trains, near museums, on airplanes, threatening major government officials from all over the world by killing their offspring. The whole thing is incredibly violent and Victor ends up in the middle of it, being constantly fed with drugs to keep him quiet and compliant and being coerced into situations he has no idea how to get out of. And try as he might, it seems that his tormentors and roommates (as they are one and the same) seem to be always one step ahead of him.
The last few hundred pages of the book speed by and are a really interesting character study as we see Victor slowly start to lose his grip on reality but also become more aware of the situation around him. He tries so hard to get out of it and to have a normal life, to right the wrongs that his new companions have done and to try and save as many people as possible, but deep down there’s not a lot that he can do and he knows it. It’s only towards the end of the novel that you start to truly question everything – was Victor Ward actually Victor Johnson? Are they one and the same person, or was this Victor Ward a different person made to believe he was Victor Johnson?
I loved the confusion of it, but only as the book came to a conclusion and I started to piece things together for myself. This book isn’t for the light hearted or those looking for something easy to read; you need to go into it with a mind that is ready to be confused and ready to have to piece things together and do some actual work while you’re reading. There are no answers or easily given solutions at the end, but Bret Easton Ellis gives you ample opportunity to theorize and speculate for yourself what was really happening all along.
I give this book a solid 3.5/5 as a final rating. Once I’ve digested it a bit more and figured out more of what it’s about, I’ll probably appreciate it a bit more. But for now, all I can say is that American Psycho was better. show less
First of all, I was very confused about what this book was actually about? I see certain similar trends between this and American Psycho – the obsession with materialistic details, the way of talking about celebrities and pop culture. I also loved how Patrick Bateman and his little brother Sean both feature briefly in this novel. But for most of the first 250 pages or so of the novel I was very confused about what was actually happening.
And then it really kicked off.
Glamorama is about a young model named Victor Ward (his real name is Victor Johnson) who is trying to make it big show more in the world using his good looks and acting skills. Most of the first part of the novel is Victor having multiple affairs while trying to keep a relationship afloat, and opening a swanky new club in New York while avoiding the tabloid press and a certain story that could get him into a lot of trouble. It’s during this first part of the novel that we learn about F Palakon, a man who has reached out to Victor and wants to hire him to find someone; this someone happens to be an ex-classmate of Victor when he attended university, and has last been spotted in London. Victor obliges, happy to get away from the drama that his life is headed towards, only for his life to go all kinds of pear-shaped when he actually goes on this mission.
From the beginning of the novel there are hints that what Victor is experiencing is weird, or that he might not actually be the real Victor. Remember how in American Psycho there was this theme about how none of the characters remember what any of the other characters look like or who they are coz they’re too self-absorbed to care? There’s a hint of that in this novel, only here people keep telling victor that they last spoke to him in a certain city or at a certain club, but he insists that he was never at those events, even though nobody believes him. As the novel progresses, this part becomes more and more prominent.
Victor ends up embroiled in a terrorist cell that are planting bombs across many major European cities and landmarks and just causing chaos. There doesn’t seem to be an actual aim to the whole thing beyond just causing chaos – on trains, near museums, on airplanes, threatening major government officials from all over the world by killing their offspring. The whole thing is incredibly violent and Victor ends up in the middle of it, being constantly fed with drugs to keep him quiet and compliant and being coerced into situations he has no idea how to get out of. And try as he might, it seems that his tormentors and roommates (as they are one and the same) seem to be always one step ahead of him.
The last few hundred pages of the book speed by and are a really interesting character study as we see Victor slowly start to lose his grip on reality but also become more aware of the situation around him. He tries so hard to get out of it and to have a normal life, to right the wrongs that his new companions have done and to try and save as many people as possible, but deep down there’s not a lot that he can do and he knows it. It’s only towards the end of the novel that you start to truly question everything – was Victor Ward actually Victor Johnson? Are they one and the same person, or was this Victor Ward a different person made to believe he was Victor Johnson?
I loved the confusion of it, but only as the book came to a conclusion and I started to piece things together for myself. This book isn’t for the light hearted or those looking for something easy to read; you need to go into it with a mind that is ready to be confused and ready to have to piece things together and do some actual work while you’re reading. There are no answers or easily given solutions at the end, but Bret Easton Ellis gives you ample opportunity to theorize and speculate for yourself what was really happening all along.
I give this book a solid 3.5/5 as a final rating. Once I’ve digested it a bit more and figured out more of what it’s about, I’ll probably appreciate it a bit more. But for now, all I can say is that American Psycho was better. show less
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added by nagel175
Bret Easton Ellis, geboren 1964, unerbittlicher Satiriker der globalen High Society und enfant terrible der amerikanischen Literaturszene seit seinem skandalösen Meisterwerk "American Psycho", hat sich nach neun Jahren Abstinenz zurückgemeldet: Mit einem Moloch von einem Roman. Von unverminderter Rasiermesserschärfe sind seine Erkundungs- und Folterinstrumente: Alles wird aus der show more hypernaturalistischen Optik eines involvierten Ich-Erzählers erzählt, alles im verstörenden Präsens geschildert. Hier findet sich auch nicht die Spur eines den Leser beruhigenden erhobenen Zeigefingers. Die Figuren führen sich selbst vor. In Echtzeit. show less
added by Indy133
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Author Information
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Bret Easton Ellis was born in Los Angeles, California on March 7, 1964. He attended Bennington College. In 1985, at the age of 23, his first novel, Less Than Zero, was published. His other works include The Rules of Attraction (1987), The Informers (1994), Glamorama (1998), Lunar Park (2005), and Imperial Bedrooms (2010). His most controversial show more book was American Psycho, a book for which he received an advance in the amount of $300,000 from Simon and Schuster, who then refused to publish the book while under attack from women's groups in regards to the content of the book. It was later made into a feature film. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Glamorama
- Original title
- Glamourama
- Original publication date
- 1998
- People/Characters
- Victor Ward; Lauren Hynde; Alison Poole; Patrick Bateman; Aerin Lauder
- Important places
- New York, New York, USA; Hôtel Ritz, Paris, France; USA; France
- Epigraph
- There was no time when you nor I nor these kings did not exist.
--Krishna
You make a mistake if you see what we do as merely political.
--Hitler - Dedication
- for Jim Severt
- First words
- "Specks--specks all over the third panel, see?--no, that one--the second one up from the floor and I wanted to point this out to someone yesterday but a photo shoot intervened and Yaki Nakamari or whatever the hell the design... (show all)er's name is--a master craftsman not--mistook me for someone else so I couldn't register the complaint, but, gentlemen--and ladies--there they are: specks, annoying, tiny specks, and they don't look accidental but like they were somehow done by a machine--so I don't want a lot of description, just the story, streamlined, no frills, the lowdown: who, what, where, when and don't leave out why, though I'm getting the distinct impression by the looks on your sorry faces that why won't get answered--now, come on, goddamnit, what's the story?"
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)The future is that mountain.
- Original language*
- Anglais
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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