Post Lunar Park Video Interview

Another video interview via Abszinth of Bret in his mother's house shortly after the release of Lunar Park.

Russian Book Covers

Thanks to Konstantin for sending in these great Russian covers of Bret's novels. Below are Lunar Park and Less Than Zero.

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French Lunar Park Cover

This French cover for Lunar Park was very disappointing. Usually, the foreign covers are more interesting than the American originals - but not this one.

Thanks to Albedo for sending it in.

Lunar Park Inspired Music

If you are looking for some new music, there is a band balled Porcupine Tree that says latest album was inspired by Bret and Lunar Park.

Porcupine Tree's official site
Porcupine Tree's Fear of a Blank Planet microsite
Amazon: Fear of a Blank Planet

Thanks to matteo for sending in the link.

Online Chat With BEE

21st Century Lit has a transcript from a recent online chat with some college newspaper editors. Its a pretty long chat, but I did find it interesting that Ellis still says that Glamorama is his favorite novel. Usually, writers fall in love with whatever their most recent work is - especially when they are still trying to sell copies of it.

Award For Lunar Park

Back in June, we mentioned that Lunar Park had been nominated for an International Horror Guild Award. Well, the awards were handed out on November 2nd, and Lunar Park won the Best Novel award!

Previously: IHG Horror/Dark Fantasy Awards.

Lunar Park Foreign Covers

Found a couple new covers for Lunar Park. I'm not sure whether these are hardbacks or paperback versions of the book.

The cover on the left is from Spain. There are a couple articles featuring this cover here and here, plus a picture of Bret holding a posterboard of the cover here.

The image on the right is from Portugal. For whatever reason, they appear to have put this book into the 'romance' category.

German Interview w/ Bret

An interview w/ Ellis from March of 2006. The intro is in German, but the questions and answers (of course) are in English. [Thanks to Maddie for sending in the link.]

Lunar Park Book Tour Troubles?

There are rumors flying that the Lunar Park paperback book tour has been cancelled. I haven't seen anything official yet, and haven't had a chance to follow-up with people who would know, so this is still a rumor at this point to me. And given that I've seen 3 variations of this rumor - exhaustion, broken foot, rehab - I'm not too inclined to believe it.

Hopefully, I'll have better information by this evening.

UPDATE: Page 6 is reporting the book tour cancellation and using the broken foot story as the reason why.

UPDATE #2: Here are a couple of images of Bret from one of his readings in California that wasn't cancelled. Clearly on crutches with a cast on the foot.

pic 1 | pic 2 | pic 3.

The pics come from here and here. You may have to copy/paste the URL of the pictures into your browser rather than clicking on them.

Lunar Park Nominated For World Fantasy Award

Couple of interesting tidbits via the SciFi channel. According to this story, Ellis has re-located back to Los Angeles to work on his previously mentioned 'sequel' to Less Than Zero.

We also find out that Lunar Park has been nominated for a World Fantasy Award. The winner will be announced at their convention in November 2006. Here are all the nominees:

Hal Duncan, Vellum (Macmillan; Del Rey)
Bret Easton Ellis, Lunar Park (Knopf; Macmilln)
Graham Joyce, The Limits of Enchantment (Gollancz; Atria)
Patricia A. McKillip, Od Magic (Ace)
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore (Harvill; Knopf)
Paul Park, A Princess of Roumania (Tor)

It seems very odd to see Ellis listed among that group of authors.

Classifying Lunar Park

I'm not sure exactly when this was published - it reads to me as months old, but some of the images are very recent - but Dogmatika has a long article exploring Lunar Park as genre fiction.

Ellis Interview, New To Me

Thanks to Mitch in the forum for pointing to this audio interview with Ellis by the BBC from mid 2005. Ellis talks about Lunar Park, American Psycho and a whole lot about Glamorama.

Lunar Park Paperback Cover

It appears that this grey cover is what we are going to get for the Lunar Park paperback cover. Amazon has picked it up as their official product image, and its been on the Vintage website for a few weeks now.

I had been holding out hope that this was just a preliminary design, or a placeholder until the real cover was unveiled - but no luck.

The paperback version is officially released on August 29th, 2006.

Lunar Park Paperback Tour, Cover

Random House has put up the remainder of the Lunar Park paperback tour dates. We also get a small image of what will apparently be the US paperback cover. Below are all the currently known dates:

9/24/2006
6pm UCLA Armand Hammer Museum
10899 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90024
310-443-7038

9/26/2006
7:30pm Tattered Cover Bookstore
1628 16th Street
Denver, CO 80202
303-436-1070

9/27/2006
7:30pm Boulder Bookstore
1107 Pearl Street
Boulder, CO 80302
303-447-2074

9/28/2006
7pm Borders Books
3750 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53705
608-232-2600

9/29/2006
7pm Shaman Drum Bookshop
311-315 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734-662-7407

10/2/2006
7pm Barnes & Noble
33 East 17th Street
New York, NY 10003
212-253-0810

10/3/2006
7pm Free Library of Philadelphia (Central Library)
1901 Vine St.
Philadelphia, PA 19103
215-567-4341

10/4/2006
7pm Regulator Bookshop
720 9th Street
Durham, NC 27705
919-286-2700

10/5/2006
7pm Book People
603 N. Lamar Blvd.
Austin, TX 78703
512-472-5050

IHG Horror/Dark Fantasy Awards

Lunar Park has been nominated for an International Horror Guild in the category of horror/dark fantasy. [thanks to Nadin for the heads up] The other nominees in this category are:

Elizabeth Kostova. The Historian

Hilary Mantel. Beyond Black

Peter Raftos. The Stone Ship

Carl-Johan Vallgren. The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot, His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred

June 20, 2006
LINK

Category: Lunar Park
Comments: 0

Lunar Park, Paperback of the Week

Lunar Park has been named the paperback of the week by The Observer.

The paperback edition of Lunar Park gets released in the US on August 15th.

Lunar Park Paperback Tour Date

The first date of the Lunar Park paperback tour has been announced at the Vintage website:

9/24/2006
UCLA Armand Hammer Museum
10899 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90024
310-443-7038

Lunar Park European Cover

Here is a European cover of Lunar Park.

Lunar Park Polish Edition

Thanks to Michal for sending in this image of the Polish version of Lunar Park.


After the jump are Polish versions of American Psycho and Rules of Attraction.
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Lunar Park Paperback Tour Confirmed

I've just gotten word that there will be a Lunar Park paperback tour. Cities and schedule have not yet been decided.

Lunar Park Paperback Release Date

According to Amazon.com, the paperback edition of Lunar Park is scheduled to be released on August 16, 2006.

Lunar Park Tour Hits Spain

There is a brief mention that Bret is currently Madrid doing publicity in support of Lunar Park. I thought he was finished with the Euro tour by now.

UPDATE: Some great info from the comments section on Ellis' tour of Europe.
Johannes has posted a description of Bret's recent reading in Munich, and Philipp has added a summary of BEE's visit to Zurich.

Ellis Interview

The Morning News has an interview up with Bret by Robert Birnbaum. Robert has chatted with Bret a few times over the past couple of years, so his interview is quite different than most folks because he doesn't have to ask the obvious questions. [Thanks to Tim and Settemod for sending this in]

The only real future project nugget is Bret's response when asked about The Informers:

BEE: And that has a script and looks like it's going to go, yeah.

This would be the Nicholas Jarecki script mentioned last year, so hopefully its still progressing.

Deconstructing Ellis

Tiny Mix Tapes tries to review Lunar Park, and ends up with something else entirely

The real undiscovered irony in Bret Easton Ellis' work is that we know that he knows that we know. Case closed. And if you don't know, then it's just tough titties, innit. That's my case, and it's the one thing people never say because Ellis is a "brilliant contradiction." And it's not about beautiful, meaningful writing or character development or even a message. It's all about the environment. Like Bob Dylan said, "Things have changed." On the one hand, Ellis is an experimental writer who attacks the very base of the novel by chucking the narrative out the window. And plot- who needs it? He's going for Truth ‘N Beauty, baby!!! He's writing with his heart, but his heart says it's meaningless, or at least very, very empty.

Dazed & Confused Interview

The new issue of Dazed & Confused magazine has an interview with Bret in it. Their website has some excerpts from it.

D&C: Is the character of Robby your way of looking at your own childhood and seeing yourself as a father?

BEE: Robby was me, because I've never been a father. In the book, Bret isn't a great father and I was probably thinking about mine when I wrote about him, and thinking about myself as the son, as Robby, witnessing my parents' strained marriage. Ultimately, it's also amusing to me, but in a sad way, that none of that was supposed to be talked about. My impetus for the book was to write about ghouls and monsters. It wasn't supposed to end up being an investigation into my past. I was thinking back on what has really scared me.

Video Interview With Ellis

Here is a 25-minute interview with Ellis by a Danish TV host (its in English, though the introduction is not). Ellis talks about Lunar Park, American Psycho, fame, 9/11 and terrorism in what I found to be a great interview.

One of the things I was happy to hear was Bret saying that he would not apologize for American Psycho. He did say that he was more sympathetic with those that were shocked by the book, but wouldn't go so far as to apologize.

He did again say that he wanted to write a sequel to Less Than Zero as his next novel. He followed that up by saying he thinks its probably a bad idea, but that he's likely to do it anyway.

Thanks to Christian for sending this in.

Palm-Star Options Lunar Park

News has finally come out on who bought the film rights to Lunar Park - its Palm-Star Entertainment.

"We believed in Lunar Park so strongly that we put in a pre-emptive bid the very next day after it came to us", said Kevin Frakes, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Palm-Star Entertainment. "We were in a bit of a battle, but it was personal for our company and we went the extra mile to close the deal". Palm-Star has been fielding interest from producers, directors and writers, but are taking their time in packaging the project.

"Lunar Park is the most personal book I've written even if on the surface it reads like a thriller. It took a long time to complete and Palm-Star has known about the book from the beginning. And they witnessed the usual complaints, anxieties, and excitement that occur when you're completing a novel." Concedes author Bret Easton Ellis. "Now it's their turn to move through that process."

Lunch With Bret

For those of you with an account at the Financial Times, there is Lunch with the FT article that features Ellis. The first 2 paragraphs are available to all readers.

100 Notable Books

Lunar Park made the NY Times 100 Notable Books of the Year list.

More Interviews With Bret

Here are a few interviews of Bret that I had previously missed:

Ellis refers to Katie Couric as a bitch.

Interview in the Daily Iowan

Manchester Online interview

Kulture Flash interview

November 02, 2005
LINK

Category: Lunar Park
Comments: 3 (add yours)

Italian Review of Lunar Park

An review of Lunar Park, in Italian from Black Mail Mag. You can read the translated version here.

Another Exquisite Corpse

Knopf is having another exquisite corpse game for Halloween. There aren't any prizes this time, but they are writing a ghost story. Should be fun.

Lunar Park Reviews

I continue to add to the Lunar Park review thread. There are now 57 reviews linked.

Interview and Italian Book Covers

Andrew Billen interviewed Bret for The Times Online and I realized that I never posted it to the site. Included in the interview is the first definitive statements I've seen about who Michael Wade Kaplan was (the book is dedicated to him and Bret's father). As per usual though, the best is saved for last when Bret is asked about the scene in the book where he inherits all his father's suits only to find that the crotches are blood covered from a botched penile implant.

Assure me, I say, that that detail was made up. "No," he (Ellis) says. "That one's true." I blanch. "Sorry," he says, "you wanted to know."

Also, thanks to a comment left by Davidian in another thread, we now know what the Italian cover for Lunar Park looks like (pictured above). Its not bad, but certainly not great.

The Italian cover's for Bret's other books are after the jump.
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European Tour Dates

I don't know all of the European tour dates, but when I do, they'll be put here - and there will be a link to them in box on the top right hand corner of the site.

According to the official Netherlands BEE site, Bret is going to make an appearance in Koningsplein on October 15th at 3PM. [thanks Servaas]

I also notice that the Netherlands has a different book cover for Lunar Park than I've seen anywhere else - the moon is brown instead of grey, more of a harvest moon I guess. They also spell Bret's name wrong in the title and in alot of the head tags.

Here are the remaining foreign book covers from the site. Suprisingly nothing there for The Informers.

Lunar Park UK Trailer

The UK site for Lunar Park - Lunar-Park.com has been re-launched to include a Flash video that serves as a trailer for the book. I can't remember seing a book trailer before.

The site also includes a Q&A with Bret, and the UK tour dates.

Lunar Park Audio CD Reviews

The Stranger has a review of the Lunar Park audio CD - it is read by James Van Der Beek.

If Lunar Park has to be read, this is the best way - by a former teen star who wouldn't recognize irony if it broke his face, and who is claiming to be a character named Bret Easton Ellis in a fictional memoir and just-foolin' mea culpa that turns into a disjointed haunted-house story. It's all so meta I could just about shit.

You can buy the Lunar Park audio CD from Amazon

Limited Edition Lunar Park

There is a new limited edition, boxed version of Lunar Park that is going to be released in the UK on October 7th. You can order the book by clicking here or on the cover image below.

Bret In Dallas

The Dallas Morning News has an article on Bret's appearance there this past week. This was the event I was planning to attend before my job got in the way.

I was interested to see in the article that Bret talked about what he considered some of his novels to be derivative of:

What was surprising about Mr. Ellis was his admission of his novels' often derivative natures. Less Than Zero "ripped off" Joan Didion (his words). It's a glib, sexed-up Play It as It Lays - for teens who haven't read much. Don DeLillo's Mao II inspired Glamorama . And Lunar Park, as critics have noted, does what Phillip Roth did first and without his dazzling complexity or intensity - put himself on the line as narrator, use the razor-thin line between fact and fancy to cut through hypocrisy and easy jadedness.

Lunar Park, The Movie

2 weeks ago, I mentioned that Bret had talked about who would play him in the movie version of Lunar Park if it were ever made into a film. His answer, though playful, seemed serious enough at the time that it made me think it may be a real possibility of this book being made into a film.

Well, today that is apparently 1 step closer to reality as a legitimate offer has been made to Ellis for the movie rights to Lunar Park. Hopefully, more will be known within the next couple of days/weeks as to who made the offer and what type of film they are wanting to make from this novel. Hopefully, they are looking at this as a movie about Bret Easton Ellis with a horror backdrop rather than as a straight horror flick with Ellis as just another character.

Stephen King Reviews Lunar Park

Stephen King writes about Lunar Park @ Entertainment Weekly after being told by a fellow patron of Borders that Ellis has mentioned LP was partly an homage to him.

Whether or not Bret Easton Ellis is "doing" Stephen King at the beginning of Lunar Park (little parenthetical expressions and all) doesn't matter, because by the end, all the masks, imitations, and pharmacological shopping lists have been set aside. Even in American Psycho, that boringly bloodthirsty book, it was clear to me that Ellis was a fine storyteller. It's this facet of his writing that has most appealed to readers and been most overlooked by critics. It seems at times to have appalled Ellis himself (one could almost believe it's the Terby hidden inside his laptop, flexing its claws). I got a clear sense of Lunar Park having started almost as a joke - perhaps a rather desperate one, part apology for American Psycho - and having finished as what is close to a credo. That is the true magic of novels, which often possess more strength (and reality) than their creators suppose: They see into our secret hearts.

Beckerman Meets Ellis

Marty Beckerman has posted a 'transcript' of his conversation with Ellis at a recent book signing [he's also posted an uber-short review of Lunar Park].

Marty is the author of Generation S.L.U.T., which I reviewed last year. His next book, Retard Nation, will be released in February 2006.

Lunar Park, The Movie?

The Washington Square News has an interview with Ellis. When asked who he'd like to play the role of Bret Easton Ellis if Lunar Park were ever adapted for film, Bret had this to say:

I'd give it Jake Gyllenhaal - no, I'm kidding. They've offered it to all the actors my age. They offered it to Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp. And everyone turned it down. The only person who didn't was Benicio del Toro, who actually began running around the studios saying, "I wanna star in this."

Not sure if thats all in jest or not. I haven't heard anything about the book being optioned for film yet.

Ellis Audio Interview

Tom Waters has posted 4 audio snippets from an interview he did with Bret Easton Ellis last week.

Discussing his late father.
Discussing his critics.
Discussing a possible Less Than Zero sequel.
Talking about Donna Tartt.

And since I didn't know offhand, here is some Donna Tartt info.

Tom Waters is the author of First Person, Last Straw.

First Person, Last Straw is a collection of explosively funny rants, celebrity interviews and prose by Buffalo humorist Tom Waters. His rants cover smoking, 9/11, Dave Barry, cartoons, games, strip clubs, religion, singles dating, babies and hair coloring. Celebrity reviews and interviews include California Governor Candidate Mary Carey, cartoonists Shannon Wheeler and Jason Yungbluth, Director Jon Elston and Poet Li Farrello to name a few. There's also a 20 page party jounal ala Andy Warhol diaries; drinks, name dropping, gossip andn unflinchingly honest inebriation. Bombastic, obnoxious and hilarious in turns, First Person Last Straw is a must have for those in need of uncontrollable laughter!

Suicide Girls Interviews Bret

Daniel Robert Epstein has an interview with Bret @ SuicideGirls.com. Lots of sites seem to be making a big deal out of Bret saying that Roger Avary had the rights to a Glamorama film - but readers of this site will know that this has been in the works since at least 2003.

Ellis did come clean about what he intended to do during this book tour.

Well you know what? I did have this whole sort of performance planned when I was about to embark on this tour. I was going to do it in character as the Bret Easton Ellis of the book. About two interviews in, it became exhausting. I'm not an actor, I can't do it. It wasn't fun either. It was having to maintain a pose with a journalist who wanted genuine answers to genuine questions and it didn't work out.

UPDATE: I may have been a bit too laid back about what this news of Avary purchasing the lifetime rights of Glamorama means - see the 1st comment for why.

UPDATE 2: Minnesota Daily also has an uber-short interview w/ Bret.

A 'Less Than Zero' Love Story?

Elizabeth Barr has a good interview with Bret in the Buffalo News. Like many of his previous interviews this year, he continues to speak ill of American Psycho.

"Patrick Bateman becoming an icon made me resentful. Of course, as a writer you resent that. That will be on my tombstone, that I created that character. And I resented the character haunting me."

And, he's still toying with the idea of re-using the characters from Less Than Zero in a future novel.

"I've always written about people my age at any given time. It's not surprising that I'm no longer interested in writing about youth culture. I don't want to hang out with 20-year-olds. I don't want to write Less than Zero again," he said.

"However, I am interested in returning to Less than Zero, " the novel that was published while he was a 21-year-old Bennington College student. "I was back in L.A. recently after a long time away, driving around, and I would think about where Blair and Clay are and that they probably have kids and that their kids would be about the age of the kids in Less Than Zero. That is something I cannot not think about.

"I don't know if it's a book yet. Part of me thinks it's a really cheesey idea - there are so many pitfalls, so many traps. It might be a love story. It's just this idea that's been haunting me."

Signed Lunar Park Winners

We have our contest winners! Back on August 9th, we announced that we were giving away 5 signed copies of Lunar Park to folks that made positive contributions to the forum for the remainder of August. The winners are:

meh
videodrome
mitch
JamesG
suicide

A big thanks needs to go to Knopf for providing the books.

Lunar Park Event Photos

James has posted pictures from a Lunar Park event he attended last Saturday, and has graciously allowed me to reproduce a couple fo the photos here.

There are a few more pictures at James' site if you are interested.

Lunar Park Event Description

Thanks to David Reeve for sending in his account of the Lunar Park book signing in California last weekend.

I attended the Lunar Park book signing over the weekend. It was hosted by Skylight Books in Los Feliz, near Hollywood.

I arrived 15 minutes before showtime and the place was SRO. Maybe 200 people. Others collected outside the doors, peering through the windows while those indoors wrapped around columns of books, unable to see Bret for the reading and QA. Speaking of which, Bret - ever so humble - greeted the crowd and read five pages from LUNAR PARK, which basically established the intrigue of the novel. Then he took questions from the crowd. Here is what I remember:

Bret thinks the latest draft of the GLAMORAMA screenplay is excellent, but doubts the movie will get off the ground given the recent terrorist activity in London, and the fact that the script is very expensive to produce. Doubts about Kip Pardue's box office value persist, and being cast again as Victor is unlikely - according to producers - (but who knows?) Bret really likes Kip in the role.

Click HERE to continue reading
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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.


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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

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 [+]

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.

Selling Fiction With Fiction

The Wall Street Journal has an article up about using fiction to sell fiction and their main focus starts with Lunar Park and the Jayne Dennis website.

Pre-order Lunar Park

Lunar Park Book Tour (US)

Specific locations and dates for the Lunar Park book tour will be released at midnight tonight. I'll post them as soon as I get them.

UPDATE: The official schedule will always be at the Random House page for Lunar Park, so you may want to keep an eye on it for changes if you are planning attending an event. Below are the known August tour dates.

NEW YORK
8/17/2005 @ 7PM
Barnes & Noble
33 E. 17th Street
New York, NY 10003
212-253-0810

NEW YORK
8/20/2005 @ 8PM
Book Hampton
20 Main Street
E. Hampton, NY 11937
631-324-4939

PASADENA
8/26/2005 @ 7PM
Vroman's Books
695 E. Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91101
626-449-5320

LOS ANGELES
8/27/2005
Skylight Books
1818 N. Vermont Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90027
323-660-1175

European tour dates have not yet been set, but Ellis is supposed to fly over in October.

Two Brets - Official US Lunar Park Site

The official US website for Lunar Park has been launched: Two Brets.

There is lots of goodies there including some bio info, an interview, an excert from the book, and a game whereby you can help re-write a 'lost' BEE story. There is also a tidbit that Bret may be working on a follow-up to Less Than Zero.

I've also been informed that there is more info on Jayne Dennis out there. Jayne is Bret's wife in the novel.

Final Lunar Park Cover

The 'moon cover' is apparently the official hardcover for Lunar Park. I also received an email (thanks Jamie) that said the ARC's with this cover have a notation on the back that it was designed by Chip Kidd.

The picture itself is called The Ocean of Storms and the Known Sea from Full Moon by Michael Light.

I still don't think this is a very good cover for the book, but it is growing on me.

Jayne Dennis Fansite

More official tidbits about Lunar Park as now there is an Jayne Dennis fansite. Jayne is the wife of Bret's character in Lunar Park.

It also appears that on the Lunar-Park.com site, the username/password combo to see the FBI file has been changed from what I previously reported (picador/terby is working again). But, now you can sign up to win a limited edition proof of the book.

Lunar Park Book Tour

I got some confirmation a short time ago on the planned book tour for Lunar Park. Dates will not be announced for another 2 weeks.

US Tour
Austin
Boston
Chicago
Los Angeles
Miami
Minneapolis
New York
San Francisco
Seattle
Toronto
Washington DC

Following the US Tour, Bret will be heading to Europe for additional dates.

This is the time when I hate being located in Wichita, Kansas. The closest tour location would be Austin, TX - 550 miles away.

Bret's Back

UPDATE 3: I'm moving this one out of order because it is more important: Based on a fuzzy picture of the title page of an ARC on ebay, I've correctly guessed the login: username: picador | password: terby. The payoff wasn't as big as I was hoping. Enjoy.

Picador has launched an official Lunar Park website. It makes you put in an email address to get a password. Haven't explored it yet. [Thanks to Matthew K. for sending this in]

UPDATE: Re-reading the email that Matthew sent, it appears that the password you need was provided within the advance reader copies of Lunar Park in the UK. Anybody who's got one, feel free to send me an email ... please.

UPDATE 2: All the x'd out text at top is just a repeating of a single sentence:

Regardless of how horrible the events described here might seem, there's one thing you must remember as you hold this book in your hands, all of it really happened, every word is true.

The text on the password page appears to be a repeating single sentence as well:

The thing that haunted me the most? Since no one knew what was happening in that house, no one was scared for us.

More Lunar Park Covers

Couple more Lunar Park covers from various version of the advance reader copies (ARC's) that are floating around.

UK Lunar Park Cover

The UK Amazon site has another cover up for Lunar Park (Seb says this cover is French. Thanks!). I like this one even less than the moon cover I criticized previously. [Thanks to Dagobert for the tip]

Somebody go hire Chip Kidd!

Lunar Park Audio Book

Random House has put up some info on the audio version of Lunar Park, and it is going to be read by James Van Der Beek. You can buy it at Amazon.

Lunar Park Summary [spoilers]

The Book Standard has as short summation of Lunar Park [spoilers] up. If you want to go into Lunar Park cold, don't read it. It gives slightly more than a basic plot outline, including details that are better left discovered in the course of the novel.

Lunar Park On eBay

Advance reader copies of Lunar Park are showing up on eBay. As I write this, there are 6 available, including one where the seller spelled Bret's name with 2 T's. These are apparently bound copies, and a couple of different covers are being displayed - hopefully neither of which are the final version. [Thanks to Matthew for the heads-up]

Lunar Park Pre-Orders Open

Amazon has now opened up pre-orders for Lunar Park. The release date is listed as August 16, 2005, with a length of 320 pages.

The manuscript I read had 355 pages, so I'm interested to see if anything has been removed for the final version, or if its just formatting (font size, paper size) that accounts for the difference.

Lunar Park in NY Times

Lunar Park gets a quick mention in the NY Times. See item #6c

Lunar Park Excerpts

I wrote this in the comments to another article, so read it here in context if you want, but thought it probably deserved a spot up front where everyone was sure to see it. I guess this is our first official policy.

Just to clear one thing up...this is not the author's website. This site is entirely unofficial, and I do not know who is posting all the excerpts.

I will at this point say that I'm becoming uncomfortable w/ the number of and extent of the excerpts being posted here in the comments and would ask that whomever is doing it to please stop. At the current pace, the entire book will be here in the comments prior to its publication - and thats not good for anybody.

I'm sure its not how Mr. Ellis would want his work distributed, and its also not a good way to read the book as it makes little sense out of context. Plus, I really don't want to get a cease & desist letter for Christmas.

So please, no more excerpts. And on the off-chance that our excerpt-poster happens to be working for Mr. Ellis, I'd appreciate it if you could clue me in to your 'strategy'. That way I can clearly know whats acceptable and whats not. Until I hear otherwise though, I'm going to remove any additional excerpts posted here.

- Bret Schlyer, 12-14-2004

Pic Of Lunar Park

I'm headed out of town for a couple of days, but here's a pic of the manuscript for any of the remaining non-believers.

Lunar Park Title Hits Mainstream Press

The title of Ellis' new novel - Lunar Park - which is all but confirmed (Bookthread told us a while back, and its on the manuscript) has now hit the big media.

Picador are excited with Bret Easton Ellis’s first book for six years, Lunar Park, due out next October, “in which Ellis confronts his own legend, and the legacy of his work, with electrifying intensity”. We are promised “humour, terror and pathos” in this tale of “one man’s journey towards a kind of redemption”. Yikes. What for? American Psycho? That tame old thing?

I sure hope we don't have to wait till October for publication. From what I've seen, it certainly isn't going to take a whole year to get it finalized and printed. Thanks to Christopher W for tipping me off about this story.

Review Of Lunar Park

This was posted in the comments of an older entry by Frank, who happens to have gotten his hands on a manuscript for Ellis' new novel. I thought it was worth bringing up to the front page for everyone to see, so here's his short review/summary:

I finished reading Lunar Park today. Regarding the person's comment above who works at a film company, what they said is incorrect. There's nothing old-fashioned about this story, and BEE is not playing a reformed version of himself, whatever that means. He is the main character and the first 30 pages or so is nothing but biographical information on him, and then the actual story begins where the bio leaves off. The story takes us on a supernatural haunted house joyride with a disconnected upper class family and a little girl's extremely creepy stuffed animal. Bateman makes a return, and Bret the narrator speaks in a post-Fight Club narration of an unsolved mystery. This feels very different than his other novels and is much more mature, even bittersweet by the touching end. Finishing the last page reminds me again that I wish BEE would write faster. Getting material this good so infrequently is blessing and a curse. I'm going to be letting this one settle for a while.

None of this is officially confirmed, but Frank is now the third person I've been in contact with regarding Lunar Park, and all three have consistent information about the book.

New Book Release Date

Just a quick update on the status of Ellis' new book (Lunar Park). Via our now regular source:

release date is either spring or fall of next year on the book. Originally it was October of 05....however recent discussions have centered on the possibility of a spring release. - Bookthread

Given that, we could be about 6 months away from a release. Anybody excited yet?

Lunar Park

Lunar Park. Thats the title of the upcoming Bret Easton Ellis book according to my still anonymous source. Here's the rest of the most recent tidbits:

His book has been read by his agent and about a dozen others...and the word that was used most often was, "Masterpiece"....and the name of his self-proclaimed lifes work?......."Lunar Park"

Scoop On Ellis' New Book

Via an anonomyous email tipster who seems credible. The descriptions below are taken from 3 different emails:

Okay...here's a morsel to wet your appetite....we haven't heard the last of Patrick Bateman. And this book...it is somewhat autobiographical.

He does include many aspects of his family's life...especially his father. I do not know the title as of yet, but thats only because I have not asked. The release date is about a year away...I have been told October of next year. More about the book....and of course, as is my wont, a tad cryptic...the "Author" is in the book.

... is about the author of American Psycho, who's family is being terrorized by a man who is copying the murders of Patrick Bateman. Easton, being the author, uses his own family history in the book....

The first thing I thought to myself upon reading that final paragraph was - he wrote himself into his own book, quite like in Adaptation.

Got questions? Email me or post them here in the comments and perhaps our tipster will be generous enough to answer them.