Ellis Promotes Eat The Document
Another back of the book jacket recommendation from BEE, this time for Dana Spiotta's new novel Eat the Document.Its pretty obvious from reading many of Bret's back flap recommendations who his favorite author is - Don DeLillo. He can't help but compare everyone he reviews to him. The only DeLillo book I've read was Libra - his alternative history book about Lee Harvey Oswald."With only her second book Dana Spiotta has become, I think, a major American writer. The ironic connections she makes between the cultural divide of the early '70s and late '90x are chilling and delicious. This scary and often brilliant novel comes together beautifully in the end - there's an intense satisfaction of seeing everything link up so movingly and with such warmth, and yet Spiotta is the only female writer I know whose prose remins me of the cool ambient poetry and steely precision of Don DeLillo, and Eat the Document is as darkly exact and thrilling as the political novels of Joan Didion." - Bret Easton Ellis
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Comments: 8 (add yours)
Previous Comments
[1] On Mar-05-2006, steelyd wrote:hasn't BEE lost his book reviewing cred having endorsed the james frey craptasmagoria 'a million little pieces'?
[2] On Mar-05-2006, Bret Schlyer wrote:
It certainly doesn't help, but to be fair - nobody but Frey knew the book was largely fiction.
[3] On Mar-06-2006, Matt wrote:
Why is James Frey's book now a "craptasmagoria"? I don't get that at all.
Are you saying this because some parts of it aren't "true"?
Way to go ahead and jump on the Oprah bandwagon, well done!
A Million Little Pieces is an EXCELLENT book and for this reader every single word in it is True.
[4] On Mar-06-2006, Settemod wrote:
No autobio is true, and novels are not untrue. And "Madame Bovary c'est moi", said Flaubert.
Was Flaubert a liar?
[5] On Mar-06-2006, Bret Schlyer wrote:
For me, Frey's problem is not that his book contains untruths - thats nothing new.
The problem is that he's spent the past few years going around doing press for the book and lying about its truthfullness at every turn - until busted.
The only way to excuse everything that came *after* the book is to assume that Frey has been 'in character' for the past few years - and I'm not willing to assume that. Heck, even Frey hasn't made that argument.
[6] On Mar-06-2006, steelyd wrote:
in response to matt's comment; no, your assumption is incorrect, i am not saying frey's book is shitty because of the "revelation" that parts of the book were made up. i'm saying frey's book is shitty because it is shitty!
seriously, how can we be posting on a BEE website and arguing about authorship? remember Lunar Park? every time bret does a reading at a bookstore from his novel someone in the audience has to ask him, "so how much of it is true." and bret always replies, "all of it, its all completely true." why does bret give such a snobby response? because it's a fucking stupid question. WHO CARES IF A BOOK IS "TRUE" - as readers of Ellis you people should know better.
so why am i dissing james frey? because the book SUCKS. i picked it up back in 2003, partially due to ellis' rave on the back, and put it down after 20 pages because it SUCKED. frey tried to sell it off first as a novel but got turned down because it SUCKED... so he redid it as a memoir. why? because "truth" - which is always, all of it, 100% of the time, bullshit (and that's why we read fiction, people!!) - sells.
personally, i think ellis endorsed frey's book because his publisher asked him to and because ellis' is very cynical about the industry (at least the second part i know is true). something like that had to happen because there is no way i'm going to believe that BEE actually thinks A Million Little Pieces is a good book. but then again... (sigh)... i'm surprised that anyone does.
[7] On Mar-07-2006, Matt wrote:
Fair enough, steelyd. I was wrong in assuming that you were simply reacting to the fictional/nonfictional aspect of the whole James Frey "controversy". The reasons you have given for not liking that book are far more resonant and well thought out than I had initially been led to believe. Thanks for the clarification.
[8] On Mar-07-2006, 7Mod wrote:
Oh, en passant: happy birthday mr. BEE