Lunar Park | Bret Easton Ellis | Ellis delivers again

Lunar Park | Bret Easton Ellis | Sinister

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Lunar Park

	Lunar Park Bret Easton Ellis Vintage, 2006 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 122 reviews view larger image
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Bret Ellis, the narrator of Lunar Park, is a writer whose first novel Less Than Zero catapulted him to international stardom while he was still in college. In the years that followed he found himself adrift in a world of wealth, drugs, and fame, as well as dealing with the unexpected death of his abusive father. After a decade of decadence a chance for salvation arrives; the chance to reconnect with an actress he was once involved with, and their son. But almost immediately his new life is threatened by a freak sequence of events and a bizarre series of murders that all seem to connect to Ellis?s past. His attempts to save his new world from his own demons makes Lunar Park Ellis?s most suspenseful novel.

In this chilling tale reality, memoir, and fantasy combine to create not only a fascinating version of this most controversial writer but also a deeply moving novel about love and loss, parents and children, and ultimately forgiveness.

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Ellis delivers again

I found this to be one of the most bizarre, creative, and entertaining books I've ever read. It's so hard to describe, though, that I've had to leave and come back to this review a dozen times!

Ellis, who shot to what was really unprecedented stardom in both literary and Hollywood circles with Less Than Zero, then followed it up with one of the most controversial publishing events in history with American Psycho (historical because the original publishing house was pressured so heavily from the media and local activist groups that they pulled the book and forfeited the advance, at which point another house snatched it up and ultimately garnered Ellis ten gazillion times more from its publication than he probably would have without all the hullaballoo), makes himself the main character here, writing in the first person and using his own name as well as his ex-wife's, son's, and other family and friends. Harrison Ford and Jay McInerney make appearances. Yet it's not an autobiography, as Ellis is quick to remind us, and while much of it is a true story, much of it is invented - and the kicker is that you have no idea where that line is.

You can't even put it in a genre. It starts out as a pseudo-autobiography, evolves into a mystery, and ends as a horror novel! (Ellis has even said at one point that he was paying homage to Stephen King, whom he admires). The first third of the book, where Ellis gives us a wonderfully detailed, razor-sharp snapshot of his life and times as The Big Thing in both Hollywood and New York, was so funny that I burst out laughing more than once. That doesn't happen often! I remember sitting outside by the pool as I was reading one part - a description of the newest novel the Ellis `character' was working on - and started laughing so hard that my neighbors, also outside, went quiet. I know they were wondering about the crazy lady next door laughing to herself. But god, it was HYSTERICAL.

But Ellis is no David Sedaris (although he CAN write that kind of humor, as this book makes obvious), and soon, a real-life incident wherein the murders in American Psycho were being copycatted becomes the focus, and Ellis' deceased father, Robert, plays a key role. Those who know any trivia about Ellis are aware that he had a very volatile relationship with his father, who died under somewhat vague circumstances during a period that he and his son were no longer speaking, and this lack of resolution is very obviously a key issue in Ellis life. The main character in American Psycho, Patrick Bateman, was partly based on Ellis' father. Most of the story is told during the time period that Ellis was married to actress Jayne Dennis, with whom he has a son (Ellis is bi-sexual and later had a long relationship with a younger man who died of AIDS a few years ago, and to whom the book is dedicated along with Ellis' father, Robert).

At the end of it all (no spoilers, don't worry!), this book is about Ellis' struggle with himself and the demons both created and inflicted, and is a candid and creative dissertation on coming to terms with the things that haunt us. I found it absolutely compelling, funny, surreal, and touching, and somehow very honest and sneaky at the same time. A really good read and I enjoyed every word.

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Sinister

When you read Ellis, you expect a twisted darkness that he has become known for. But the thing that fascinated me most with Lunar Park was his ability to combine fact and fiction so cleverly in this narrative. Reader beware that you should be familiar with his earlier works, namely American Psycho, and, to a lesser extent, Less than Zero prior to reading this novel.

The first thirty pages are devoted to Ellis's autobiographical recollection of his early rise to fame as an aspiring young novelist upon the publication of Less Than Zero and the subsequent years of wealth, notoriety, drug abuse, and further publications. Then the fiction begins. A fiction so bizarre that the fabricated Bret's sanity is in question. Is his father really haunting him? Are his fictional characters really manifesting to come after him and his family? Is there a conspiracy involving his son and a multitude of missing boys? Is Patrick Bateman recreating violent murders straight from American Psycho?

There are bits of Ellis's real life peppered throughout the horror that is Lunar Park, but the fiction is so unbelievable, one has to wonder what the lasting effects of heavy drug use and drinking had on both the author and his fictional self. There is the deep-seeded guilt involving his father, the paranoia and indifference that goes along with substance abuse, and the repercussions of the publication of American Psycho. Lunar Park is a great sinister book full of everything disturbing readers have come to expect from Ellis over the past twenty years.

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Good deal!

Used library book, but still in good condition. Book came quickly and was cheap. Overall good deal!

Angst and Despair Reign

Reviewed by Charles Shea LeMone www.allwordman.com

In his fifth novel, Lunar Park, Bret Easton Ellis has found the perfect anti-hero: himself. In an overview of his life he recounts selling his first novel while still attending college; receiving huge advances on future novels; his addiction to cocaine; numerous seedy sexual romps; abusing the limelight as a best-selling novelist (with more than one Hollywood film based on his books. Finally, he describes his eventual decline and fall from grace in the eyes of his once adoring public and publisher.

In an effort to clean up his act, Bret marries a former flame, a successful actress who gave birth to his illegitimate son, Robby, now 11 years old. At this point, the novel detours away from its self-effacing autobiographical tone and slips into the chilling province of horror, as Bret declares, "Every word is true."

Starting with a Halloween party held at his suburban home, Bret's new life begins to unravel as a series of supernatural events cause him to question his sanity. Following the first incident, when his step-daughter's mechanical doll takes on a life of its own, initially, Bret attributes the blood on the claws of the toy to delusions produced by the cocaine and the vodka he has once again begun to abuse.

But too many other sinister events convince him otherwise. He starts receiving mysterious e-mails from the bank where his father's ashes are deposited. His home begins to transform, taking on the physical appearance of the unhappy home he lived in as a child. Boys in the neighborhood, the same age as his son, disappear. A woman he has been trying to seduce is killed. And a wave of grisly murders -- which mirror the acts committed by a serial killer he created in a previous novel -- bring a perplexed detective to question him. Meanwhile, his marriage appears doomed and his son's alienation and distrust of him intensifies day-by-day.

This novel of angst and despair is as mesmerizing as a ten-car collision but is also frequently amusing. The climax and resolution of the story that Bret reaches, however, left me feeling unsatisfied. It was like being a guest at a sumptuous feast only to discover that the last dish served is half-baked. Still, I recommend this book to all Bret Ellis Easton fans and to all readers of fiction who enjoy delving into cleverly crafted tongue-in-cheek page turners.

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