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Ellis' Today Show Appearance

Thanks to Christopher for letting me know that Bret's Today Show appearance is online if you missed it. (note - I could only get this video to work in IE)

The interview with Katie is short, but decent. I was suprised to hear him touch again on his 'uncomfortableness' with American Psycho after all these years - he seemed sincere. Maybe he's really not yanking the media's chain as I previously speculated.

I also added a bunch more reviews to the Lunar Park review thread, most of these new ones have been positive.

Official Lunar Park Site Updated

The official US site for Lunar Park, TwoBrets.com has been updated to include more of the audio recording of Bret reading from Chapter 1 (part of this was already on the NY Times website), excerpts from all his previous books, updated rules about the 'Excuisite Corpse' game, and an expanded Q&A with Bret.

Lunar Park Review

The following is a review of Lunar Park by Tom Waters (reproduced here with permission).

Do Brat Packers Dream of Electric Birds?

"The cliche of suburbia would dampen whatever enthusiasm I had for my new life as a man trying to form himself into the responsible adult he would probably never become." - excerpt from Lunar Park

Bret Easton Ellis is being haunted by his dead father. Ashen footsteps keep reappearing in his stylish house in the suburbs. The paint on the outside is peeling away to reveal the color of his childhood home. He's receiving emails at the same time every day from the bank where his father's remains are stored. The furniture keeps rearranging itself to the pattern that he grew up in. And worst of all, his step daughter's toy bird Terby (a simple anagram on the author's name asking a question to all the madness; why, Bret?) is coming to life when no one is looking and murdering things. Make no mistake, Lunar Park is a ghost story. References to The Shining are made. Autobiographical outpourings are interspersed throughout the novel, hidden and nestled into the parrallel universe that Ellis has shared with us in his newest and bone chilling tour de force.


... continue reading this entry

Lunar Park Event In NYC

For you New Yorkers:

On Friday, August 19th at 8:30am, Ellis will be on the Morning Sedition show on Air America. This will be a LIVE event with hosts Marc Maron and Mark Riley at Amy Ruth's Restaurant in Harlem, 113 West 116th Street (between Lenox and 7th Ave) There will be a 10 book giveaway.

I also noticed that the Morning Sedition show puts up podcasts of their show, so even if you can't be there, you can still download the MP3 and listen to Bret talk.

You can also email or call into the show to ask Bret questions.

UK Campaign For Lunar Park

The official UK site for Lunar Park - Lunar-Park.com has re-launched. You'll want to get over there and register so that you'll be first to know of additions to the site, including an up-coming audio interview a 30-60 second long animated 'pop promo', and a super-proof giveaway.

An here is the much awaited UK book tour info, taken directly from the official UK site:

Saturday 8th October, 2-3pm
Signing at Waterstone's Oxford

Saturday 8th October, 6.30pm
Event at The Times Cheltenham Festival of Literature

Monday 9th October, 7.30pm
Reading, 'In conversation', and signing at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank Centre, London

Tuesday 11th October, 7pm
Reading, 'In conversation', and signing at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester

Wednesday 12th October, 7pm
Reading, 'In conversation', and signing at Oran Mor, Glasgow

Tuesday 18th October, 6.30pm
Reading, 'In conversation', and signing at Trinity College, Dublin

Jaime Clarke Blog

Jaime Clarke has started a 'BEE & Me' blog that you'll be interested in. If the name doesn't ring a bell, Jaime is the author of Vernon Downs which is a novel based on his relationship with Bret Easton Ellis.

He also has some info about the Publisher's Weekly article on Lunar Park.

Music That Inspired Lunar Park

I don't know how legit this is, but over at Large Hearted Boy, they've posted some book notes from Lunar Park that lay-out the music that played a part in the creation of the novel.

Bret Easton Ellis was kind enough to send along a list of music that influenced the book, a "list of songs and CD's that were in my head when writing the book."

Lunar Park Review Thread

A collection of reviews for Lunar Park.

Onion AV Club [mixed]
NY Sun
Powell's [-]
NY Times [mixed]
The Portland Phoenix [-]
Newsday [-]
Village Voice [+]

Sentence for sentence, Lunar Park has some of Ellis's best writing, especially the tour de force elegy closing out the novel.

Elle Magazine [+]
Ny Times #2 [mixed -]
The Globe & Mail [mixed]
Miami Herald [+]
Boston Globe [-]

It is by far the worst novel he has ever written. It may be the worst novel I've ever read

San Francisco Chronicle [+]
Time Magazine
The New Yorker
Slate and Slate again [+]
Christian Science Monitor [+]
Purdue Exponent [mixed]
Seattle Times [-]
Rocky Mountain News [+]
The Book Reporter [+]
The Flat Hat [-]
Seattle Times (again)
The Daily O-Collegian [+]
The Stranger[+]
The Portland Mercury [+]

No matter how self-aware/deprecating Ellis can be, it still feels like he's coming on your face.

Independent Collegian [+]
Seattle Weekly [+]
Washington Times [-]
Chicago Tribune [+]
NY Daily News [-]
LA Weekly [mixed -]
Santa Cruz Sentinel [+]
Daily Evergreen [+]
Sydney Morning Herald [+]
Diamondback Online [mixed]

The Bret Easton Ellis in Lunar Park is the first Bret Easton Ellis character I've ever hoped for, making it something I'm inclined to recommend to people, including my mother, who would probably get depressed reading American Psycho.

Taipei Times [+]
Arizona Republic [+]
The New Republic [-]
Pop Matters [+]
Decatur Daily [+]
SF Bay Guardian [mixed]
Times Online [mixed +]
Arbiter Online [+]
Straight.com [-]
City Pages [mixed +]
Daily Texan [-]
Portland Tribune [mixed -]
Philadelphia Inquirer [mixed -]
Grand Rapids Press [+]
The Pinocchio Theory [+]
Hurricane Online [+]
Fairfield County Weekly [+]
Guardian Unlimited [mixed]
Holy Cross Crusader [-]
Canoe Jam [+]

Even if you don't know who Mitchell Allen is, or haven't the faintest clue how awful Patrick Bateman's crimes are (though the book doesn't leave much to the imagination), the genius of "Lunar Park" resides in its ability to expose the broken bits of Ellis-the-writer's life that, by the end, coalesce to somehow make him whole.

Financial Times
KC Star [-]

Ultimately, I found parts of the plot to be incoherent. Fathers/sons, drug-induced delusions/facts - I simply couldn't sort it out. When he's good - such as the book's last few pages, which are masterful - Ellis reveals the range of his potential. Unfortunately, the book has just too much going on for it to work.

Sunday Independent [+]
News Observer [-]
Cadenze [+]
Tennesean [mixed]
HorrorWatch.com [+]
Huntsville Times [+]

The Forum Returns - Lunar Park Giveaway!

In anticipation of the release of Lunar Park, I've re-activated THE FORUM. Its barebones at the moment, but I'm sure you all will warm the place up over the next couple of months.

As an incentive to register for the forum, Knopf has kindly given me permission to:



To qualify for the drawing, all you need to do is to register in the forums and make a few positive contributions to it over the next week or so. I'll cut off the entries on August 19th.

Make sure you use a valid email address when signing up for the forum (you do not have to make it public, I can see them all anyway) as thats how I'll get in touch with the winners. Good Luck!

Amazon Interviews Ellis

The Amazon interview with Bret Easton Ellis is now up.

Amazon.com: Finally, is it true that you're going to revisit the characters from Less Than Zero in your next book?

Ellis: It depends on how many people shoot down this idea. Since I've been living out here in LA for the last year and a half, I've wanted to write a book that's set here. I want to come back to LA. Yeah, I've been thinking a lot about where those people are now and it is what is formulating. But I haven't fully figured it out.

So here's your chance. Tell Bret its a great idea to revisit Less Than Zero, or tell him its horrible ... he's listening.

NY Times Profiles Bret, Lunar Park

The NY Times profile on Ellis and Lunar Park is now available.

Beyond the audio of Bret reading an excerpt from Lunar Park, there are a couple of sections to the story that I found particularly interesting. The first was Bret's thoughts on American Psycho.

But while working on "Lunar Park," he re-read the earlier book and saw it in a new light. "When I got to the violence sequences I was incredibly upset and shocked," he said, in a surprising public retreat. "I can't believe that I wrote that. Looking back, I realize, God, you really sort of stepped over a line there."

Do any of you believe he's being truthful there? I certainly don't. I think its more of an 'I'm going to do and say exactly the opposite of what you think I should' type answer. He has forever been misleading the press and public about himself, and I smell more of the same here.

Next, I was hoping he'd have at least a tidbit to say about what his next project might be.

His next book, he said, might be about Hollywood, a curious choice for someone who claims to have lost interest in social satire. In any case, almost everything Mr. Ellis has said through the years about what his next project might be has proven to be wrong. Which might, in the end, be the point.

"I was a mystery, an enigma, and that was what mattered," he writes in "Lunar Park." "That's what sold books, that's what made me even more famous."

Besides, Mr. Ellis said the other day, "they're not big lies, you know; I just play around with things."

Upcoming Lunar Park Media

I know the advertising for the book has been pretty low key so far, but the media has been asked to hold their reviews until closer to the actual release date. Upcoming stuff will include:

The New York Times will run a profile of Bret this Sunday in the Arts and Leisure section based on some conversations the reporter had with him. The Lunar Park review will be their cover story in the Book Review the following Sunday. Then, Janet Maslin will review the book in the daily Times.

Ellis will make an appearance on The Today Show on NBC on 8/17.

An interview with Bret will be in the 8/12 issue of Rolling Stone. Also interviews in W, Elle, etc. On 8/9, Amazon will also post an interview they did with him.

I've been traveling alot over the past month and so I haven't been able to keep up with alot of the reviews being posted by smaller media outlets so far. If you've seen any, please email them to me and I'll put them all in one place.