Customer Reviews
an original idea - By: SJSmith, 26 Aug 2008 
Whereas I found `American Psycho' an easy & absorbing read, I found this much harder work. Although rewardingin the end it took a while to get into. The part on the cruise ship became confusing for me & I was uncertain at times when we were focusing on a real plot or not. I enjoyed the concept of the camera crew, always having your lifein the spot life etc but then I felt it lost something. If you don't reflect too much & try to analyse as you are reading it then this is a great read. I found myself trying to link characters together & once all the pieces of the jigsaw started to fall into place it was as if one of them wasn't quite right & you had to start all over again. However, it is a clever thriller & you never know which character to trust. Your ideas are continually blown to pieces as another piece of the puzzle is unravelled.
I loved the chapters going downin number, like a countdown. But a countdown to what exactly? A new script, a new scene, a new conspiracy? Both clever & intriguing to read this novel rather surprisingly sucked mein & even though at times I didn't have the foggiest idea what was going on, I wasin the full long journey. It's difficult to work out Victor with his change of surnames - can we change our identity so easily & become someone different? Or is it something new to hide behind, to prevent us from having to reveal what lurks underneath the skin? Bret Easton Ellis takes celebrity culture & slowly picks away at it to let us see what exactly goes on behind the images we see on screen &in print.
I've had this book lounging on my shelves for quite a few years now, (6 to be exact) & I finally decided it needed to be read. I wish I'd read it sooner! Although not quite five stars for me, I'd happily recommend this novel & I certainly look forward to reading the other Ellis novel I own - The Rules of Attraction. It's a clever book & it's one that needs time devoting to it. You can't pick this up & then put it one side whilst you read another. It'll keep reminding you that it needs to be read! Devote some time to it & you will be rewarded with an intelligent & interesting masterpiece.
we'll slide down the surface of things - By: Gary Dempsey, 21 Feb 2008 There's been enough stylish reviews of this book so I'm going to make it short & sweet. As a fan of Ellis' work for almost 10 years I can say that this book did not need to be almost 500 pages long, for a book of this genre it really should have been shorter, if only for the sole purpose of simpllification, something it desperately needs.
Beneath the *Endless* lists of celebrties - lists to long & obscure that it makes you wonder how the writer spends his days - there is a diamond of a story, a story that's very well written.
If you finished it, give yourself a pat on the back.
Gary
'We'll slide down the surface of things' - By: M. J. Pucci, 25 Mar 2007 Glamorama is cult author Bret Easton Ellis' fourth novel (The Informers being a collection of short stories). It tells the story of a terrorist unit that uses the fashion industry as a front, casting fictitious 'It' boy, Victor Ward - a jaw-droppingly clueless yet unintentionally hilarious model-slash-actor - as the protagonist drawn deeper & deeper into a world of casual sex, mass-murder, dual identities & Xanax.
I found this book compulsive but also confusing - hardly surprising, perhaps, as Victor himself spends much of itin a state of bewilderment. When he's not drunk, stoned, or even, occasionally, "scared sh*tless", he appears only vaguely aware of his predicament. That he manages to navigate his way through the plot's myriad twists & emerge at the end alive is, well... nothing short of miraculous.
Contributing further to the confusion - both the reader's & Victor's - are the numerous passages of `mirrored reality' the author splices into Ward's narrative, as well as the inclusion of a large cast of shadowy, under-developed characters. Too many questions remain unanswered. Who is Palakon? And what's with the constant references to Christian Bale?
Despite this being a rather sprawling, over-long & - yes, I'll say it again - confusing opus, I would still recommend it on the grounds that it is simply a masterpiece of written dialogue. Ellis' interpretation of the nineties' "glam-speak" is a marvel, revealing almost everything you need to know about the book's characters while advancing the plot at a rate of knots & displaying a staggering grasp of the vacuity of fashion world minutiae. And while it may not quite be to the nineties what American Psycho was to the eighties, it certainly works as a sharply observed satire of the decade's obsession with the shamefully superficial pursuits of celebrity & fame.
Matt Pucci
Gotta love Brett - By: Mark Jardine, 14 Dec 2006 
It has to be said that this is quite possibly the best book written by Mr. Easton Ellis, bar American Psycho which is a classicin it's own right. Do not listen to anyone who says that this book (or anything else by him for that matter) is rambling, they just don't understand his style of writing.
This book is amazing & the main protagonist is inspired, & we are constantly left wondering whether events are really happening or whether they are just a product of his psychosis.
Read this book! But read American Psycho first!!!
