Steven Moore
[Frey's] ambition may have been to write the definitive novel of L.A., to do for that city what Joyce did for Dublin, Dos Passos did for Manhattan or Durrell did for Alexandria. If so, he may have succeeded; Joyce boasted that if Dublin were to disappear, it could be reconstructed from his Ulysses, and Frey could make the same claim for Bright Shiny Morning…[it] reads quickly, has great dialogue and some expertly paced dramatic moments, teaches you more about L.A. than you ever knew, and makes the case (posited by an artist near the end) that Los Angeles is the new New York, on its way to becoming the cultural capital of the world. Or it could all be a stinging satire of the most violent, corrupt, polluted, pretentious, money-mad place in America. Works either way.
The Washington Post
Janet Maslin
The million little pieces guy was called James Frey. He got a second act. He got another chance. Look what he did with it. He stepped up to the plate and hit one out of the park. No more lying, no more melodrama, still run-on sentences still funny punctuation but so what. He became a furiously good storyteller this time.
The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
The controversial Frey offers his first novel, a collection of stories about various individuals in Los Angeles. With the sheer quantity and quality of characters that pop up in this tale, Ben Foster offers a truly a magnificent performance. Whether portraying a teenage couple on the run, a beach-going alcoholic who lives in a restroom, or a movie star who just can't seem to get everything he wants, the 27-year-old Foster is superb. His voice doesn't call attention to itself but his delivery is stellar and his interpretations are all realistic and never overplayed. A Harper hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 14). (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From the Publisher
Frey returns with a novel so powerful it makes one wonder why he ever detoured into nonfiction. . . . A wildly talented storyteller, he lets it rip in Morning—a gripping epic about Los Angeles.” — People (four stars)
“Bright Shiny Morning is un-put-downable, a real page-turner—in what may come to be known as the Frey tradition.” — Publishers Weekly
“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. By turns satirical, tense, and surprisingly touching, it is a portrait of a city onto which so many millions have projected so many dreams. . . . Compelling, cinematic. . . . It achieves the very essence of Los Angeles’s fractured, unpredictable, loopy nature.” — Vanity Fair
“A captivating urban kaleidoscope. . . . James Frey got another chance. Look what he did with it. He stepped up to the plate and hit one out of the park. . . . He became a furiously good storyteller.” — Janet Maslin, New York Times
“A meaty social novel in the Tom Wolfe vein. . . . Its subject is Los Angeles from the bottom to the top, and unless you have ice in your veins you’ll find its 501 pages of tiny print compulsively readable. I did.” — Bloomberg News
“Relentlessly entertaining. . . . Bright Shiny Morning is a refreshingly archaic affair, an old-fashioned book written in an old-fashioned style. . . . It’s reminiscent of one of Tom Wolfe’s billion-footed beasts, but it’s even more reminiscent of the socially conscious early 20th century naturalism of John Dos Passos and John Steinbeck. Fittingly, Frey uses a hard-boiled, under-punctuated, Hemingway type of nonstyle that seems to growl.” — Time magazine
“Frey’s ambition may have been to write the definitive novel of L.A., to do for that city what Joyce did for Dublin, Dos Passos did for Manhattan or Durrell did for Alexandria. If so, he may have succeeded. . . . Bright Shiny Morning reads quickly, has great dialogue and some expertly paced dramatic moments, and teaches you more about L.A. than you ever knew.” — The Washington Post
“If, despite the scandal, you loved A Million Little Pieces, you might want to devour Bright Shiny Morning. Like its author, it can be called many things, but never boring. Or timid.” — USA Today
“A novel to reckon with, a tale of hopes and dreams and second chances. . . . A heartfelt homage to American dreamers, to the hope of re-invention and redemption. . . . Frey has given his novel a deeply spiritual subtext, and prayers, like dreams, rise up above the city in a kind of spiritual smog. . . . In James Frey’s new world, we see what America has become—for better, for worse.” — The New Orleans Times-Picayune
“Frey’s sprawling narrative is brimming with energy, tragedy, and the endless travails and dreams of living in Los Angeles. . . . Frey is a novelist of compassion and unique vision. If there are second acts in American lives, he deserves one.” — Boston Globe
Vanity Fair
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.”
New York Times
A furiously good storyteller.”
author of Trainspotting Irvine Welsh
An absolute triumph of a novel…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…James Frey is probably one of the finest and most important writers to have emerged in recent years.”
Washington Post
[Frey’s] ambition may have been to write the definitive novel of LA, to do for that city what Joyce did for Dublin, Dos Passos did for Manhattan, or Durrell did for Alexandria. If so, he may have succeeded; Joyce boasted that if Dublin were to disappear, it could be reconstructed from his Ulysses, and Frey could make the same claim for Bright Shiny Morning…[It] reads quickly, has great dialogue and some expertly paced dramatic moments, teaches you more about LA than you ever knew, and makes the case (posited by an artist near the end) that Los Angeles is the new New York, on its way to becoming the cultural capital of the world. Or it could all be a stinging satire of the most violent, corrupt, polluted, pretentious, money-mad place in America. Works either way.”
AudioFile
Frey’s brush strokes paint a captivating portrait of contemporary Los Angeles with bold splashes…Ben Foster expertly captures the author’s compelling style with outstanding pacing…as well as humor and sarcasm…[An] insightful delivery. Foster seizes Frey’s poetic documentary with its gritty dialogue and produces an exhilarating, unforgettable experience.”
USA Today
If, despite the scandal, you loved A Million Little Pieces, you might want to devour Bright Shiny Morning. Like its author, it can be called many things, but never boring. Or timid.
The Washington Post
Frey’s ambition may have been to write the definitive novel of L.A., to do for that city what Joyce did for Dublin, Dos Passos did for Manhattan or Durrell did for Alexandria. If so, he may have succeeded. . . . Bright Shiny Morning reads quickly, has great dialogue and some expertly paced dramatic moments, and teaches you more about L.A. than you ever knew.
Bloomberg News
A meaty social novel in the Tom Wolfe vein. . . . Its subject is Los Angeles from the bottom to the top, and unless you have ice in your veins you’ll find its 501 pages of tiny print compulsively readable. I did.
People (four stars)
Frey returns with a novel so powerful it makes one wonder why he ever detoured into nonfiction. . . . A wildly talented storyteller, he lets it rip in Morning—a gripping epic about Los Angeles.
The New Orleans Times-Picayune
A novel to reckon with, a tale of hopes and dreams and second chances. . . . A heartfelt homage to American dreamers, to the hope of re-invention and redemption. . . . Frey has given his novel a deeply spiritual subtext, and prayers, like dreams, rise up above the city in a kind of spiritual smog. . . . In James Frey’s new world, we see what America has become—for better, for worse.
Boston Globe
Frey’s sprawling narrative is brimming with energy, tragedy, and the endless travails and dreams of living in Los Angeles. . . . Frey is a novelist of compassion and unique vision. If there are second acts in American lives, he deserves one.
Time magazine
Relentlessly entertaining. . . . Bright Shiny Morning is a refreshingly archaic affair, an old-fashioned book written in an old-fashioned style. . . . It’s reminiscent of one of Tom Wolfe’s billion-footed beasts, but it’s even more reminiscent of the socially conscious early 20th century naturalism of John Dos Passos and John Steinbeck. Fittingly, Frey uses a hard-boiled, under-punctuated, Hemingway type of nonstyle that seems to growl.
USA Today
If, despite the scandal, you loved A Million Little Pieces, you might want to devour Bright Shiny Morning. Like its author, it can be called many things, but never boring. Or timid.
OCT/NOV 08 - AudioFile
Frey's brush strokes paint a captivating portrait of contemporary Los Angeles with bold splashes of the city's high-energy evolution from past to present. In a dazzling tour de force, BRIGHT SHINY MORNING illuminates the joys, horrors, and fortunes found and lost that comprise the city's characters (or victims) and its powerful history. Ben Foster expertly captures the author’s compelling style with outstanding pacing—poignant pauses, a crescendo of shouts and whispers, silences—as well as humor and sarcasm. Foster grasps the author's vision of brutal realism against an evolving cultural backdrop. Frey's emotional portraits of starkly contrasted personalities and snapshots of diverse circumstance are complemented by Foster's insightful delivery. Foster seizes Frey's poetic documentary with its gritty dialogue and produces an exhilarating, unforgettable experience. A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine