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alright, well, i just read the first 225 pgs and i'm not gonna continue. it's not that it's soooo terrible. it's not. his stylized prose works more often than not and he can definitely set a tone. if i didn't have a stack of books on my desk that i've been dying to read, i'd probably finish... but, no. the minutes tick by and monsieur reaper hides behind every corner. it's not that just'bout everything in the book (the individual pieces and the sum of their parts) is cliche, cliche, cliche... cl...
I know there’s been some controversy with some of Frey’s other works but I’m a huge fan nonetheless. Whether it’s fiction or not, who gives a shit, it’s still good. Anyways, enough of that and onto this book! I didn’t like it quite as much as the other books I’ve read by Frey but I did still very much enjoy it. I love the different views he gives of the city, showing us all facets and faces of it. Some were heartbreaking, some were groan worthy but all of them were fascinating and captivating. M...
I had never read a book until Bright Shiny Morning where, immediately after finishing, said to myself, "Well, that could've been at least 200 pages shorter."
I loved this. For so many reasons. One of course is James Frey's style of writing. I can't explain why I love the way he writes. I can see how it would get on so many people's nerves. Then I think, anyone can do this..use weird commas or no commas, and then I see it done poorly and realize that it really is a talent.I loved the first line of the book..before the actual book starts "Nothing in this book should be considered accurate or reliable." Way to go James--you tell them! Then the further I...
Everyone remembers the controversy surrounding A Million Little Pieces, James Frey’s first book. Published as a memoir, it was later revealed that much of the book was fabricated to protect those Frey wrote about.In the end, however, the controversy doesn’t matter. Frey’s books A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard did what all good books should do: they evoked emotion, touched long forgotten places inside of us and inspired people to live better lives.So despite the controversy, I was e...
This is possibly the best book I have read all year. Following The Million Little Lies, I had lost my faith in Frey as a writer... Cliche, I realize... but it's true. Now, I believe that if that is what was required for him to whip up this masterpiece, so be it. That is exactly what this is. A masterpiece. Although I do not agree with his "this is my style because I am cool & I do not give a fuck about grammar"... I have to say it works. Although it requires me to concentrate in ways I am not fa...
A 4.5 rating for me.The only thing I knew about James Frey was what almost everybody who is an avid reader knows, that his memoir was, well, a novel. I'm sure there was some truth to that memoir, and if anyone really believes memoirs to be fully factual, just get far away from me. What am I talking about? Most of my inner circle of acquaintances and friends probably have no idea what a memoir even is. I'm not joking. So with all that said, I was truly reluctant to read this book with all the bad...
This book reads like a screenplay which makes sense because James Frey was actually a screenwriter before A Million Little Pieces. The book is as if someone asked James Frey to write a book to the future to sum up all of LA. This broadness is at once intriguing and completely dull. It is also clearly influenced by Crash. There are a couple interesting story lines but the incessant introduction of characters that are sometimes not even named and then never go anywhere is frustrating. It is almost...
I picked this book up because I loved A Million Little Pieces, regardless of all the controversy that surrounded it (I read it after it was discovered that much of it was false). With that being said, I do love Frey's writing style- the stream of consciousness, lack of proper punctuation, the continuous flow of words and thoughts meshing together. The problem is, only about half of the book is like that. The rest is rather odd- the book centers around the settling and "coming to be" of the city
I've only read the first 10 pages or so, and it's terrible. Still, and I want everyone to hear this, I purchased this book just to stick it to Oprah. For this reason alone, I believe my pennies have been well deposited. More later.Here's the later: Really, I apologize to anyone that I've offended just by having tried to read this work. Yeah, I've read further into this hulkish nightmare. It's a complete disaster. The story's cliche, weak, poorly written. The million little pieces Mr. Frey kicked...
This book was very easy to read and gave me the kind of travelogue that I've always really wanted for visiting a city - a glimpse at the real pulse of the city of LA which can be difficult for a tourist on the ground to sense. It is not a travel book, but it gives a very vivid snapshot of LA and its people. Lots of diverse narratives all coursing together in a warts and all look at Los Angeles and more broadly the concept of "California" in all its fucked up tarnished lustre. I don't care if Jam...
Odd, interesting book. Kind of incoherent but one of the most accurate descriptors of Los Angeles I've read in recent memory.
This is just a scattered collection of my thoughts on this book. I liked certain aspects of this book and was majorly turned off by ohers. I plowed through it in a matter of days and looked forward to reading it each night before going to bed. I easily connected with the characters and towards the end of the book, found myself skipping the commentary/facts on LA. (Some of it was interesting, some of it was way too long. I didn't feel I was missing anything by skipping a lot of it at the end.)Fre...