Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
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James Frey has possibly the most bizarre voice I've ever read in fiction. I couldn't put his strange book down. Frey is the writer who got caught fudging details from his sensational memoir A Million Little Pieces. Remember that? First, Oprah made him famous, and then she brought him back on the show to say, "How could you have made that stuff up?" Well, here is the novel he should have written in the first place. It is filled with half-truths and over-the-top characters and the most unexpected details.
Bright Shiny Morning is a collection of stories and facts about Los Angeles crumpled up like a piece of garbage into a novel. There are the typical kids who come there to make it big and wind up being waitresses and porn stars. There are kids running from their abusive parents. There are Mexican immigrants who speak better English than I do but never admit it to their employers. There are Hollywood stars who never see their children without their nannies. And then, interspersed between the chapters about all of these characters, are chapters filled with just facts - facts about the LA freeway system, facts about insurance coverage and smog and drug use and every other imaginable thing.
I don't know how to describe this book or whether to recommend it. It is grotesque and dark, so much so that it left me feeling a little sick, but it was also the most original work of fiction I've read in a long time. It's not for everyone, but if you've got the stomach for it, you may find some fascination there, as I did.
