Lionel Shriver Rises To Top, Pisses On Everyone

Author Lionel Shriver is shocked to find out that the more a book is promoted, the better it is received (generally) by the public. Then she picks the easy target and uses Bret Easton Ellis as her poster-boy.

She went on to cast aspersions on the successes of some best-selling authors whose writing was simply not very good, she thought, but whose books were aided by the benefit of the powerful publishing publicity machine - citing Bret Easton Ellis' latest book, Imperial Bedrooms, as one such example.

"There are a lot of books that end up selling that aren't very good. I've just read Bret Easton Ellis' new book and it's awful but it's had a big publicity campaign.

"I'm writing a 1,500 word review of it - the size of which alone will overwhelm what I say. It's not a case of cream rising to the top but skimmed milk rising - of the 'no fat' kind. The book doesn't deserve the attention. It's ghastly. In the meantime, there are lots of books that will not be reviewed," she said.

Wow, how bitter can you get? Imperial Bedrooms is not 'ghastly'. Its a solid book made more interesting/important by the fact that it uses the characters from the iconic Less Than Zero.

It appears to me that she's pissed because she had a difficult time getting industry folks and the public to read and like her work - then finally broke thru. Now that she's went thru the hard road, its the only legitimate road to use.

I'll put more stock into what she's saying when I hear about her shunning any publicity for her next novel. Oh, and when you win an award, say 'thank you', smile and move along. Complaining about winning awards is extremely unbecoming.