Glamorama

by Bret Easton Ellis

Book Overview

The New York Times bestselling author of American Psycho and Less Than Zero delivers a gripping and brilliant dissection of our celebrity obsessed culture. - "Arguably the novel of the 1990's...Should establish Ellis as the most ambitious and fearless writer of his generation...a must read." --The Seattle Times

Set in 90s Manhattan, Victor Ward, a model with perfect abs and all the right friends, is seen and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375703845
• ISBN13: 9780375703843
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 560 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Those who appreciate absurdity find deeper meaning in Glamorama.

Many of the reviews I have read on this book have said that they liked the first half of the book, because it was "funny", but were completely thrown off by the second half of the book. If you are of this opinion, you are willing only to digest the shallow surface of this book, and are completely ignoring the actual meaning. Honestly, the mental image i get in my head when I think of this book is of Victor Ward leaning over vomiting on the ground. I don't think that any part of this book was meant to be funny. Yes, some of the exchanges and dialogue in the book could be seen as comical, but they are presented not for entertainment but to show the shallowness of hollywood glitz. I believe that Ellis put these in intending for the reader to be disgusted at the way life is for his characters. There is no way this book was intended to be a light and comical novel, the author struggled for years and years to complete it and Ellis himself stated that the book nearly killed him. That sure doesn't sound like the testimony of someone who was trying to write a book for humor. I wouldn't recommended this book to everyone, but I do recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the obscure of absurd. I personally absolutely loved the book, and I'll admit that the second half of the book threw me off track at first, but I soon loved it. The second half of the book may either be a delusion of the main character Victor Ward, or real events, it is open to interpretation. The sense of delusion created by the second half of the book mirrors the frenzied terror of protagonist Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. In many parts of American Psycho the reader wasn't sure whether Bateman was imagining events or not, which I felt was a very cool effect. Glamorama is a political statement about the corruption of hollywood glitz and glamor, and how that culture has affected society. Victor Ward begins the novel as a stuck up and conceited airhead, but from his traumatic (whether real or not) experiences in the second half he is able to get a deeper understanding of his life and most readers can develop sympathy for him. Again, I'm not saying that everyone will love this book, but I can personally say that I enjoyed it. I like odd movies as well as books, I'm a huge David Lynch fan and I found elements of Lynchian style in this book. I think that this is a deep novel that you have to be devoted to to gain some understanding, and its not exactly a casual read. To those of you who say that this was a horrible novel, thats your opinion. However, if you fail to see the deeper meaning hidden in it and only grab at the shallow "humor" given in the first half, in the words of Victor Ward, spare me.

The Better You Look, the More You See

The above quotation, spoken by the protagonist, Victor Ward, sums up in true Easton Ellis style the themes of this fantastic novel. The quotation, like the whole book (and most of Ellis' writing) can be understood in a number of ways and a reader can find within it many layers of meaning. This isn't a book for everyone, and people who read "American Psycho" and took it literally rather than as a satirical commentary should definitely not read Glamorama. If you can take the above quote, though, with its proper irony and all the meanings that Ellis lays out in this book, you'll really enjoy the whole book. A word of caution, though: though Ellis is rarely what I'd call linear in his narrative in any case, this book may strike some as particularly jumbled or nonsensical. It sort of needs to be read like you'd watch "Mulholland Drive." If that kind of analysis and symbol-seeking is your thing, as it is mine, you'll like this book. But even if you are left confused, the hilarious name-dropping and continuous 90's pop-culture references make it well worth the read.

Brilliant. Absolutely Brilliant. What more can I say?

I know that a lot of people sit around scratching their heads when they finish this book- and that makes them conclude that the book must be poorly written. To them, I respond: so what? I don't believe that anything in this novel is superfluous or pointless, and that every action in it delves into the subtext Ellis is talking about, but then again, if some of it still leaves you feeling like a primate, that doesn't neccesarily mean it's poorly written. Regardless of whether you grasp Ellis' central thesis in the novel (which I'm not patronizing enough to disclose here), the book is a visceral experience, and perhaps may simply be read as absurdist simply enough. Anyone out there ever consider that incomprehensibility is part of the subject of this book, not part of its construction? Just a though. That said, Ellis is, in my opinion, the modern bearer of the flame of Oscar Wilde. This novel takes issues raised as far back as "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and looks at them from a modern standpoint- questions about youth, beauty, selfishness, aesthetics, and the very nature of the various media (and I speak formally) themselves. It seems to me that more than anything, Ellis is commenting about the power of the image, if it actually has any, and the art/nature paradigm that most good novelists have struggled with since the invention of the printing press. Still don't get it at first? Let it sit for a while- you will. This novel changed my opinion about what the written word can do, and where literature has both been and is heading. I'd recommend it to anyone- heck, if it wasn't so (necessarily) dirty in some parts, I'd tell you to teach it.

A Horror Novel?

I consider myself a fan of Mr. Ellis' writing. Each of his books has a different point of satire, and each skewers its target mercilessly. Glamorama surpassed surpassed all of his works before it.This is, without a doubt, one of the most horrific, hilarious, and many other words starting with "h" novels I have ever read.Victor Ward and his "friends" are everything I've ever dreamed and feared New York City society is like. At first, the book seems to be about quite possibly the most insipid male model in history. But Ellis had a lot more in his sights: what celebrity does to our perceptions of ourselves; how we can let ourselves become passengers in our own lives; and how we've become inured to violence in the media and movies.This book has such an incredibly slowly developed sense of menace and spiraling insanity, that I didn't even realize it was there until it was already too late. Which is exactly what happens to Victor in the novel.I'll say this. I read this every morning on the subway into work, and found myself alternatingly cackling with laughter, and clutching the handstrap for support. I don't think I've ever had such a visceral reaction to a book before.One of the most shocking, surprising, novels I've ever read. It's definitely not for the easily queasy, but otherwise, I cannot recommend it enough.*A little note: I'd also recommend reading Rules of Attraction before picking this up.

a shockingly mature novel

You start this book and think, "more of the same old Ellis." Now I'm essentially a fan of Mr. Ellis. I'm not one of the ill-informed crackpots raving on endlessly about American Psycho being the greatest book of all time. I liked it. I wrote a review for it here. But let's admit--it has a lot of problems with plotting and the overall writing. This book, however, is the first of his novels that appears to have been slaved over. It is the same, yet different (a theme present within this dark fantasy.) The characters are more human, less the yuppie automotons, and moreso just despicable, self-absorbed semi-celebrities who have no self-control, no real talent, and, ultimately, no confidence in anything they do, regardless of how blustery and obnoxious they can get. There is a lot happening in Glamorama. It is composed mostly of dialogue, and the narrative itself is a questionable first person, something that really is an extention of the remarkable, tape-recorder accuracy of how people such as this speak. This is probably Ellis' best book. It grows leaps and bounds chapter after chapter as you get more and more absorbed in the horror being played out before you on the page. There is maturity here, perhaps indicating that Ellis is finally growing past his early success and popularity, rattling off the fame all contraversy causes, and realizing that he is, finally, a writer.