Bright Shiny Morning

After falling in love with "A Million Little Pieces" James Frey's debut "memoir," I feared that his oh-so-public fall from grace would mean this innovative voice of contemporary American letters would be silenced forever.

But Frey has proven with "Bright, Shiny Morning" that his talent was no fluke. In fact, I liked this book even better than his two previous works.

"Bright, Shiny Morning" brings to life a cast of Los Angelenos--the beautiful and the damned, which in this novel, are often qaulities infused in the same character.

Frey takes us deep inside the warped psyche of the offensively rich, sickeningly self-absorbed Hollywood magastar--and then to the clever, humble Mexican American maid who fakes an accent so her wealthy, sadistic employer can feel superior. My heart was completely involved with the young couple who left abusive Midwest lives behind to find something better in LA. And he presents a sympathetic portrait of life on the streets of Venice, where homeless people eek out a living next to million dollar bungalows.

"Bright, Shiny Morning" yields up deeply crafted characters that put a heart and soul to those living in the ultimate soul-less city.

A note on narrator Ben Foster: As a legally blind person who is also a voracious consumer of books, I often feel at the mercy of marrators. A bad narration can ruin a great book. But Ben Foster was the perfect choice to bring this book to audio life. I loved his interpretation of the various characters' voices and the sardonic verve with which he infused Frey's jaded look at the land of big dreams. Simply brilliant narration.

I highly recommend this book. If you want to hear something cutting edge in literature--this is your book.

While this book was interesting and he does a great job of developing characters that hold your interest the book was sub par. The person who actually did the reading of the book gets a 10... great job really.

- Too many characters to follow and not enough content about the characters. Just when the characters are built and are interesting to you they disappear.

- Not sure what was up with all the weird music breaks but it seemed like senseless filler to me

- The facts about L.A. and the lists he read were horrible and mostly boring distractions from the stories of the characters. I found myself fast forwarding through these parts after listening to half of the book.

I was left feeling empty and unfulfilled by the book... like there was more to say about these characters but with all the other stuff jammed in there just wasn't time.

Had potential but in my opinion it lost out.

I purchased this book by mistake having confused it with A Bright Shining Lie. Initially I was disappointed as this really isn't the kind of book in which I'd normally be interested, but there I was on a long trip with this book in my iPod so I started listening. Before I knew it I couldn't tear myself away. I quickly became wrapped up in the lives of each of the different characters and almost two years later something will remind of the book and the memory of it is still vivid - which as forgetfully as I am - is truly amazing.

This is such good writing. I love this author. I forgive him that he wasn't an addict. Oprah, you need to rethink your anger towards him. Maybe he just got caught up in the moment.....the NOW. He is becoming one of our primo authors. I was born in LA. I got out of there. Frey shows the butt end of that community and it is true and not pretty. If you ask me this is a piece of work, and by the way, this reader gets my 5 star applause.

If it weren't for the music between chapters, I might give this book 5 stars overall. The music, which is at the end of every chapter and then repeated again at the beginning of every chapter is by far the most annoying music I have encountered in an audio book. It has nothing to do with the story and is entirely unnecessary. I generally don't like music between chapters but have never hated it so much....

The book, however, is great - it follows several fairly stereotypical characters in L.A. and has both extremely harsh and tender moments. Frey writes in an almost stream of consciousness manner which serves to portray each character's thoughts intimately.

It's not as dark as A Million Little Pieces but it's not a cheery piece of fiction (Frey is careful to point out that this work is FICTION, to avoid flack from the critics).

It's read by Ben Foster, the actor in 3:10 to Yuma and the Messenger and he does an amazing job of capturing Frey's characters.

Highly recommended.

Never did I ever expect to encounter the spirit of John Steinbeck in a (current) novel about los angeles. Frey's characters and sense of place drew me in like I haven't been drawn in for years. Some of the "lists" could get annoying, yet I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A great story beautifully told in a contemporary style that reminded me of what I loved so much about Steinbeck, especially his characters from Cannery Row and Sweeth Thursday.

Maybe the parts with the facts about LA.

Danny. LA county.

The first week of golfing.

Laugh hard, 3-5 times. Chuckle lots.

Please make Ben Foster read more books! He is excellent! Of he read David Baldacci, I would buy every one of them.

I thought this story mirrored "real life" so well! Frey managed to give life to LA, personifying her via characters, hopes, dreams, and history. I was captivated from beginning to end. Not all the stories are happy, but they represent each life lived, poorly or brilliantly, according to the person. Such a rich story upon a story. LOVED IT! Narrator was PHENOMENAL!!!! He seemed to really love the story, himself, or at least understand it enough to pour his own emotion into it.

The reading of this book is one of the best I've ever heard.
But..., this is a difficult book to hear/read. Much of the ugliness you imagine about life in LA is played out in this book in the stories of the various characters. The stories are interspersed with interesting details about LA itself. Read the book and don't move there.

this is my favorite author.. i love books with several stories going on at once. its like t.v. best part was when lemonade says.. "love camo". sad story. great characters. the man is a genius.