We'll slide down the surface of things . . .From his first novel--Less Than Zero, published when he was still a college student--to his most recent--the fierce American PsychoBret Easton Ellis has been a powerful and original presence in contemporary literature, whether giving voice to a previously inchoate generation or provoking a controversy that raged throughout the culture.Now he takes a quantum leap forward: an awesome reckoning of the American Century at endgame. In Glamorama, a young man in what is recognizably fashion- and celebrity-obsessed Manhattan is gradually, imperceptibly drawn into a shadowy looking-glass of that society, there and in London and Paris, and then finds himself trapped on the other side,in a much darker place where fame and terrorism and family and politics are inextricably linked and sometimes indistinguishable. At once implicated and horror-stricken, his ways of escape blocked at every turn, he ultimately discovers--back on the other, familiar side--that there was no mirror, no escape, no world but this one in which hotels implode and planes fall from the sky.Time and again, the novel confounds one's expectations of it, and Bret Ellis accomplishes the transitions from comic to surreal to horrific to humane with astonishing confidence. Matching ambition with artistic maturity, Glamorama is at once hilarious, savage in its worldly observation, and compassionate in its vision: a defining novel of our times.
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Glamorama
We'll slide down the surface of things . . .From his first novel--Less Than Zero, published when he was still a college student--to his most recent--the fierce American PsychoBret Easton Ellis has been a powerful and original presence in contemporary literature, whether giving voice to a previously inchoate generation or provoking a controversy that raged throughout the culture.Now he takes a quantum leap forward: an awesome reckoning of the American Century at endgame. In Glamorama, a young man in what is recognizably fashion- and celebrity-obsessed Manhattan is gradually, imperceptibly drawn into a shadowy looking-glass of that society, there and in London and Paris, and then finds himself trapped on the other side,in a much darker place where fame and terrorism and family and politics are inextricably linked and sometimes indistinguishable. At once implicated and horror-stricken, his ways of escape blocked at every turn, he ultimately discovers--back on the other, familiar side--that there was no mirror, no escape, no world but this one in which hotels implode and planes fall from the sky.Time and again, the novel confounds one's expectations of it, and Bret Ellis accomplishes the transitions from comic to surreal to horrific to humane with astonishing confidence. Matching ambition with artistic maturity, Glamorama is at once hilarious, savage in its worldly observation, and compassionate in its vision: a defining novel of our times.
Popular Reviews(2)
Reviewed by LieschenDas ist eins der Bücher, das am längsten in meinem RuB gewartet hat. Ein bisschen war es deshalb auch wie eine Zeitreise zurück in die 90er. Das ewige Namedropping am Anfang hat mich tatsächlich nicht so genervt wie die exzessiven Outfitbeschreibungen in American Psycho. So schön „eingelullt" habe ich damals den ersten Mord fast überlesen. Auch hier muss man sich erst durch seitenlanges hohles Partygelaber und wichtigtuerische Aufzählungen von Promis quälen, bis die Story an Fahrt aufnimmt und in Geheimaktivitäten, Terror und Folter abdriftet. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt erscheint einem der Erzähler schon so unzuverlässig, dass ich mir nie sicher war, ob das alles wirklich passiert. Je mehr von Filmcrews und Konfetti die Rede war, umso weniger real wirkte das Ganze. Ab der Überfahrt nach Europa habe ich damit gerechnet, dass sich am Ende alles auflöst und sich rausstellt, dass die Hauptfigur einen schlechten Drogentrip oder eine Psychose hatte. Aber so kam es natürlich nicht. Wäre wohl auch nicht Bret Easton Ellis' Art.
Reviewed by George Patrick Hane<b>Glamorama</b> reminded me of those contemporary artworks that supposedly satirize the superficial art world—like a taped banana or 'canned shit'—but ultimately remain part of the problem they are trying to critique. I found a quote by David Foster Wallace regarding <i>American Psycho</i> that actually fits <i>Glamorama</i> perfectly: <blockquote>"Look, if the contemporary condition is hopelessly shitty, insipid, materialistic [...] then any writer can get away with slapping together stories with [...] flat characters. If what’s always distinguished bad writing—flat characters, a narrative world that’s cliched and not recognizably human, etc.—is also a description of today’s world, then bad writing becomes an ingenious mimesis of a bad world. If readers simply believe the world is stupid and shallow and mean, then Ellis can write a mean shallow stupid novel that becomes a mordant deadpan commentary on the badness of everything."</blockquote> I can't believe I spent 18 hours reading this satire of a plot.