Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey

From the publisher:

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.

"Out of the many characters in Bright Shiny Morning, one dominates them all - the city of Los Angeles. Frey etches out the city's persona through the experiences of a cross-section of its inhabitants, from the highest to the very lowest. It is testament to his skills that even the most profoundly unsympathetic of these individuals cannot fail to get under your skin and the novel is always engaging although don't expect a story in the conventional sense."
Tom Goddard, Waterstones.com

An ambitious and wide-ranging first novel from the author of the controversial rehab memoir, A Million Little Pieces which paints a vivid fictional portrait of the city of Los Angeles and its many and varied inhabitants...Did you feel that James Frey suceeded in creating believable and sympathetic characters here? How did you find the unconventional narrative structure of the book? Did it affect your overall enjoyment of the book? Does the book provide a rounded portrait of the city that gives a real impression of sense of place and what the city is like? Did you empathise with any of the characters more than others? Amberton, Dylan, Old Man Joe - who did you feel was the most convincing character?

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Comments

[Steve Grice]

One of the other interesting typos was that dates were sometime rendered as 'nineteen18' or 19fifty. While this threw me at first, I think it is really fascinating because you can see some of the processes the book has gone through to get it to this stage. It's almost like the builder's left some scaffolding up.

Can I nominate my favourite book about place? It would be Waterland by Graham Swift. A really good read, well written and evokes well the other-wordly wetness of East Anglia.

[Neil Fulwood]

I'm quite glad Frey DIDN'T go for a 'Crash'-style interweaving of the four main stories. Can you imagine how horribly contrived such a device might have been?

Although, nearly three weeks after I finished reading it, I'm still vacillating between diametrically opposite opinions of the novel, one thing I will admit to being impressed with is Frey's casting of the city itself as main character, the individual stories highlighting certain aspects of the place.

[Kevin Woolard]

I have never read any James Frey before and such a huge book seemed quite daunting. Initially I liked the style of the novel and the fact that the punctuation and grammar were used sparingly or at times not at all. But as the novel progressed I have to say I found the style slightly annoying and offputting, especially during long conversations.

There were a few times when I decided to read in the evening and wanted to pick up a different book but Bright Shiny Morning kept pulling me back. I’m glad I persevered as the four main story arcs were entertaining enough but, without spoiling anything I was so heartbroken with the Dylan and Maddie conclusion.

I also found that in the last 100 or so pages when I just wanted conclusions conclusions conclusions I was still confronted with lists and endless facts about LA and ended up skipping huge sections to find out exactly what happened next in the four main arcs.

Overall an enjoyable book, although overlong (mainly due to the LA facts). Not sure I could read any more James Frey as the grammatical style tended to grate after a while (is “A million little pieces” the same?) and the fact that the type was ranged left instead of justified may seem quirky but after a while will seem gimmicky.

[Clive Wallis]

A few observations on the book and the comments so far:

A lot of people have commented on it BSM being a 'huge' read. Granted it's 500 pages, but a lot of those are one paragraph or a list of some sort. Before this I was reading Middlemarch. Now that's huge. Is this a reflection of our shrinking 21st century attention spans?

The book: I thought it was great and agree with Neil that it worked better without the four stories joining together. In a city the size of LA, millions of lives run side by side and never intersect. I take back my earlier comment.

Of the four plots, Dylan/ Maddie gripped me most. From the wedding onwards I was reading through my fingers, waiting for the bikers to return! I confess I had a tear in my eye at the very end. Amberton was hilarious. Coming back to him was a spot of light relief from the some of the other stuff. Old Man Joe and Esperanza I could take or leave. The back of the book described Esperanza as a genius but this didn't really come across to me, or did I miss something?

One other slight cricitism. I thought that the lists became more frequent and the character chapters shorter towards the end. Was this intentional or did Frey run out of gas?

That said, I loved the history, loved the lists and read every word. What's this skimming and skipping all about?? Nobody is that short of time. Try turning the TV off.

[Neil Fulwood]

Good call, Clive. I'm currently reading Neal Stephenson's 'Crytonomicon', which clocks in at 900 pages of fairly small type, paragraphs often running to a page in length and with none of the lists or long exchanges of truncated dialogue which actually make 'Bright Shiny Morning' a novel of reasonably moderate length.

The length of a book doesn't necessarily mean that it can't grip or deeply involve the reader throughout the whole of its telling. Stephenson proves this with 'Cryptonomicon' and his three-volume 'Baroque Cycle'; so does Don de Lillo with 'Underworld'.

[Helen Nash]

Really interesting coming back to read comments. I remain convinced that 'friend's' is just a really annoying typo, waiting to be corrected - if it's deliberate with a 'hidden meaning' then the book has gone down HUGELY in my estimation. And as for it being a BIG book - well, there are quite a few pages and it's heavy to read in bed BUT it's not heavy going and I thought it was a fast read - a fair bit of empty space on pages too.

Can't agree more with Neil and Clive that the 4 stories are better unconnected - I had no desire to see them neatly brought together! Have to stand by my previous comments about skipping and scanning some of the lists (though I loved the gang and freeway chapters and thought the lists of 'hollywood hopefuls' was inspired) - life is sometimes too short to read every word (sorry if that's heretical...)

And 3 weeks on from finishing this book the characters are still in my head. That's got to say something about a book, surely???

[sharon rowe]

i did like the book and enjoyed the different stories but like some other people here i was waiting for the stories to somehow join. i wanted a reason why they were together instead of separate books which in the end was how i felt about them. I found the bits about Los Angeles boring and not something i wanted to read. i also found the mistakes annoying but put it down to being an uncorrected proof.

[Karen Sykes]

I agree Bright Shiny Morning was not a huge read - the 500 pages would have probably fitted on 300 to 350 if the typeface was a regular size and the pages with just one sentence were compacted. The length of a book does not impact on my personal selections but then I do have the luxury of having the time to read whereas lots of people don't. Personally I skimmed and skipped because I found the whole thing tedious and boring not because I was short of time. If I had selected the book for myself I would have ditched it completely before the end and moved onto something else that I did enjoy. Life is too short to spend my reading time with something I am not enjoying.

As for connecting or not connecting the story threads, well who can say? I don't get the "Crash" comparison here, something to do with a film? If so, I didn't see it so the analogy went straight over my head. I did not enjoy the book and thought some connection might have swayed it a little the other way, but may be not. Probably best to stick with "I just did not like it", and move on!

[Adele Winston]

Hard to find anything to add to the above: but - If Frey were a painter, he would paint on huge canvases with acrylic paint, most appropriate for bright sunny L.A. mornings. Perhaps not everything he writes IS true, but it all rings true.
He missed out the open-plan ladies' lavatory on the beach at Venice, but perhaps nobody told him about it. Everything else is there!

[Neil Fulwood]

Karen - the "Crash" analogy references an Oscar-winning film centred around several overlapping stories and highlighting urban angst and racial tension. Many people spoke highly of it; I found it unconvincing, preachy and narratively contrived. Fortunately, Frey didn't feel the need to pull the main story strands together in 'Bright Shiny Morning'. A wise decision.

[Kathy Clark]

I would agree that this book isn't 'huge'. I can usually do a 500 page novel in 4 evenings or so. And I WAS one of the people who skipped the lists, and for information I NEVER watch TV! I didn't skip the lists due to lack of time, I skipped them because I fond them dull and boring. When I read a novel I want a novel, not LA history for dummies. The main issue here is that we are sent books to review, we don't choose them - so it is inevitable that we will receive some books that we like and some that we don't. And the purpose of this book club is to express our opinions, preferably without being told that we need to switch off the TV - which I actually found pretty offensive and presumptive.

[Clive Wallis]

An proper debate at last! Firstly, apologies Kathy. I didn't mean to offend you or anyone. The 'turn off the TV' comment was meant as a joke and as a figure of speech. My point was a general one - that attention spans do seem to be shrinking. I guess as everyone on this site is a committed reader, I was aiming at the wrong target.

I think the lists are an integral part of the novel. Every novel involves background information. All Frey has done is dump his in in chunks. I think given the modern style of the book this worked better than trying to slip it in amid the narrative. We've all read clunky novels where the research blares out at you.

And I still think skipping is wrong!

[Adele Winston]

The information about Los Angeles contributed to the fuller picture of the city, explaining how it had developed to the sort of place it is, surely?

[Lynsay Lambert]

I have to say i agree with Kathy - i do watch tv, but i also put aside a significant portion of my time to read.

I do read a fair amount, and didnt think that this book was such hard going, i dont think 500 pages is that much, especially with the way this is laid out. In a way, it makes me more eager about a book - i do a lot of reading while travelling to and from work, so if i'm near the end of a book or its only thin anyway, i feel like i have to carry another book to start in case i finish the first one (am i the only one that does this lol?)

I did skim some of the lists, which isnt usual for me, but some of them just didnt appeal to me. i dont think we needed - what, 9 pages roughly? - about the roads. As for them being a research issue, i dont recall the layout of the roads being all that important to any of the stories? In a way, the lists that i found really boring (And i appreciate that not everyone will find these lists boring!) just seemed to be a dump on information, as if to pad the book out a bit more. I can see why it was done, but a lot of the time i didnt find that the list added anything to the narrative for me personally.

In saying that, i found some of the lists fairly entertaining, and the information on them could not have been integrated into the narrative without it looking far too obvious and clunky, so its just one of those things that i can see pros and cons of.

Clive, have you NEVER skipped any part of a book in your life? what if you find it really boring, or it drags? As i think a part of it for me was that it could slow the story right down.

[Georgina Tranter]

So am I one of the few people who actually read and enjoyed the history parts of the book? I did skim the gangs list admitedly, but I found the rest of the info about LA really interesting, especially as I haven't been there myself. I certainly didn't feel it was in any way 'LA history for dummies' as Kathy pointed out. I agree with Adele that it contributed to the book, and wasn't detrimental to the reading at all.

[Kathy Clark]

I'm really sorry if my comments were slightly off last night.

The point that I wanted to get over was that we all have different interests and we all found different bits of the book interesting. There isn't a 'right or wrong' here, just subjective opinion.

Georgina: My 'LA history for dummies' was tongue in cheek, and not meant to offend - as I realise Clive's 'turn off the TV was'.

Adele: I realise that the lists were meant to inform, but reading something that sends me to sleep isn't my idea of a good read. Nine pages of description of the road system? I was as irritated as hell when I had finished that lot!!

My point was: I won't read something that doesn't interest me, not through laziness or lack of time - but just because I don't want to! That doesn't mean that someone else can't find the facts interesting, it's just that I don't.

And Clive: I realise that you were trying to get a debate going - and you have! But to me, the lack of debate previously backs up what my earlier thoughts were: that no one could be bothered because the book didn't really fire anyone up that much that they were prepared to spend loads of time debating it. But this is just my opinion, feel free to disagree :-)

[Clive Wallis]

I can hand on heart say I've never skipped, skimmed or peeked ahead to read the last page (why would anyone do that!?). Up until perhaps ten years ago I'd never given up on a book after starting it, either. The older I get the more precious my reading time has become so I have, occasionally, given up on a particular stinker.

I hear where you are coming from Kathy. Perhaps we need a REALLY out-there book next to get us all fired up! Greg?

[Neil Fulwood]

I'll admit to speed reading just to get through a particularly dull system (the interminable interlude about road systems being a prime example here), but I've never skipped either.

If a book's really not doing it for me (step forward Richard T Kelly's 'Crusaders') then I work on the principle that life's short, abandon it and get stuck into something better.

Agree with Clive that it would be great if the next book was totally off-the-wall and divisive.

[Kathy Clark]

Off-the-wall and divisive sounds good to me :-)

Now there's a challenge Greg!!

[Caroline Watts]

I felt that the historical aspects of the book added to the stories and each depicted a different part of such a famous city. I found that the book as a whole was well crafted and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I agree with some comments regarding the lengthy lists – I find detail interesting however I did think that the road system was over laboured. However having been to LA there are lots of extremely busy roads and this is a striking feature of the city. I was torn between knowing that this was an essential point of the depiction of the city and getting impatient with the lack of development in the story.
I think all of the characters did add to the story and helped me to enjoy it more however as other people have described I do think that not all of the characters were completely believable – however this may have been Frey’s intention.
I did feel that the book will be one that I am unlikely to forget and I have spent time thinking about after finishing it which is my measure of a good book.

[Steve Grice]

Until recently I have never not finished a book. I was always quite concientious about finishing a book even if it wasn't really doing it for me because I took the view that it needed to be appreciated as a whole.

Then, a couple of months ago, I read an interview with an author (sorry -can't remember who!) who was saying that every time you force yourself to read to the end of a book that you're not enjoying or getting something from, it reinforces the view that reading is a chore.

Ever since, I have regarded giving up on a book as rather less of a moral failure than I had previously.

It's interesting that some people actually enjoyed this book. I really found it a grind. What really does it for me is beautiful, subtle prose that tells a story without you even noticing it's happening. I do not think James Frey's prose is possessed of that particular quality. I don't think the stories themselves were even entertaining, but I stuck with it well past the half way mark to see if it improved. When it started to become a chore, that's when I stopped. I do not think that this is about attention spans or TV watching, but I do think that to truly learn something from fiction, you have to be able to enjoy it as you do it, like so much else in life.

[Georgina Tranter]

Kathy, you didn't offend me! I'm just amazed that so few people liked the factual side of the book, but then 'each to their own' as it were. If we ever found a book that everyone loved, wouldn't it be a bit dull?!

[Kevin Woolard]

I agree with Neil - Life is too short to be reading something that just doesn't do it for you. I haven't done it often but if a book doesn't grab me in the first 50 or 60 pages then I don't think it's likely to grab me at all and just move on to something else.

Coming back to a couple of points, I think the fact that it was 500 pages long by an unknown author to myself was what I found daunting. I'm not put off by long books per se as my lifelong fixation with Stephen King (and a prime example would be the 1,000+ pages of The Stand) would testify to. And really, the only parts I skimmed were in the last fifth of the book, but that was because I was so taken and gripped with the main arcs and didn't feel the lists added to them.

And as for turning off the TV, I have two young boys and don't even get near the thing.

I'm new to the bookclub but can I just say that I have enjoyed the comments posted here and look forward to the next book, especially if it is totally off-the-wall.

[Lynsay Lambert]

I would love if the next book was off the wall - not a suggestion, but along the lines of We Need To Talk About Kevin, which is a book that i've found always produces strong differing opinions.

As i have already stated before, I did enjoy this book, but i agree with the view that it doesnt particularly fire people up (apart from the lists, that is!!)

I think that people expect a lot more from the book than is delivered.

[Clive Wallis]

This is only my fourth book, but I think it has generated more debate than the previous three.

As to suggestions Greg, how about Joseph O'Neill's cricketing 9/11 novel "Netherland" ?