Bret and Fran
by Levi Asher on Thursday, August 11, 2005 02:16 pm
Bret Easton Ellis's new novel/memoir Lunar Park is getting a lot of attention. I haven't read it yet, but I have been amused to peruse the famously fake websites created to introduce some of the supposedly but questionably real characters in this book.
Since when does a major publishing firm like Random House do wacky stuff like this? It must be a new kind of world we are living in.
But if this fast-changing world leaves you yearning for the comfort of a familiar sarcastic voice from the past, here's an interview with Fran Lebowitz. Fran hasn't written much since the days when Bret Easton Ellis was the new kid on the block, and it's good to hear from her again.
Since when does a major publishing firm like Random House do wacky stuff like this? It must be a new kind of world we are living in.
But if this fast-changing world leaves you yearning for the comfort of a familiar sarcastic voice from the past, here's an interview with Fran Lebowitz. Fran hasn't written much since the days when Bret Easton Ellis was the new kid on the block, and it's good to hear from her again.
4 reponses to "Bret and Fran"
Books/AuthorsIf I need to remember the books I am familar with I choose Vonnegut, especially if I am looking for something to laugh at. The last thing that made me laugh aloud, reading for the first time, would probably be Gogol's 'The Nose.' Sometimes I read what I write and laugh at myself.
'Net Makes Buzz for the YoungI read a factoid somewhere that said 87% of the US demographic Hollywood targets, teens to thirty-somethings, uses the internet so it is possibly the choice medium to create buzz. The last Easton book your correspondent read was American Psycho and would've never finished it if something else to read was available.
You're ahead of me, WW -- the last Ellis I read was "Less Than Zero". I may actually pick up this new one, though. As I've mentioned here elsewhere, I'm always drawn to these Paul-Auster-esque metafictional pseudo-autobiographies, which seems to be exactly what this book is.
I really enjoyed American Psycho, then read/skimmed a few of his other books like Less Than Zero and Glamourama. Nothing exceptional. It really turned me off that he kept writing the same book with the same characters (with the exception of American Psycho). Reading about a bunch of young rich kids who do tons of coke loses its appeal after a chapter or two of high profile celebrity references. Though I do really enjoy Paul Auster...