Rating:  Summary: A Vivid Treatment of an Underexplored Theme: Shame Review: I was reluctant to pick The Fabulist up, but once I did I couldn't put it down. What is the value of integrity, compared to adulation? Is friendship a confidence game? How can a guy right his stride once he's stumbled on a fast track? Glass's protagonist flinches while exploring these questions. It's fascinating. At times, funny. There are no easy answers.
Rating:  Summary: The Fabulist Review: I'm only giving this book 1 star not because I want to, but because that is the only option (outside of a 2 to 5 star review) that I'm offered.
In a nut shell, don't buy this book. Glass should never be rewarded in any way for the lies he spun while working at The New Republic. Watch the film "The New Republic" for your self then if you still feel the need to purchase this book you might find yourself leaving a 1 star review like others before me here have done.
I wouldn't even buy this book if the price was slashed more than it has been, nor would I read it if it was given to me for free.
I have to wonder where and when values dropped so low that anyone in America (or any where else in the world) would actually pay to read something written by a liar.
This guy is really not for real, nor is his work. Can you honestly bring yourself to support someone who is a liar and does it for profit or any other reason?
Do however (if you feel the need to make a purchase) grab "Shattered Glass" on DVD and see the real story about Stephen Glass and what he did during his employment at "The New Republic".
Kudos Tom Cruise for Producing and Co-Producing "Shattered Glass" and letting the world see the real truth about Stephen Glass!
Rating:  Summary: A Fabul-OUS read Review: If you liked the movie Shattered Glass, you will love this book. It gives the other side to the moive, which made the editor the more sympathetic character. While this book does not make Glass the sympathetic character, it gives him more depth. The book gives the reader some insight into his world. For instance, in the first chapter of the book, Glass describes how he dumps his girlfriend's cosmetic bag to find blush and lipstick, which he applies to his face to get into character as he types his fictionalized interview into "notes."
Rating:  Summary: Worthless Review: It is a travesty that a compulsive liar would continue to profit from his lies, this time in the name of "fiction". Go do something honest for a living, like washing cars.
Rating:  Summary: Fabulous Review: It will come as a shock to no one that Stephen Glass -- the infamous liar -- can tell a good story. Whether you want to regard this as a quasi-memoir or a warning to every young journalist, it's a page turning novel which sheds needed (if unwelcome light) on the practice of journalism. This book has been denounced by the media because of the author's past, but I think there's a lot to learn and be entertained by here.
Rating:  Summary: Don't, don't, don't believe the hype Review: Journalists don't want you to read this book -- and in my book, at least, that's one of the best reasons why you should. Some of the book reads like Goodbye, Columbus on speed; some of it reads like Dave Eggers with an anxiety disorder; some of it reads like Catcher in the Rye if Holden had been expelled from a whole profession, not just a prep school; some of it reads like a more serious episode of Seinfeld. Whatever comparison you prefer, virtually all of it is a lot of fun to read -- something none of the reviews has dared to let on.
Rating:  Summary: Even Renting It Is a Waste of Time; DO NOT BUY Review: Kudos to the reviewer below me: it seems that these five-star reviews match the writing style of the author himself, right down to the typos and misspellings. Anyway: "The Fabulist" is predictable, cliched, and worse yet, boring. The (fictional) story of Glass' autobiography reads hollow and fake (pun intended). Seriously, you're better off watching the "Shattered Glass" movie to really know the life of a fabulist. Now THAT film did a better job at portraying Glass' actions than Glass himself could in his debut book.
Rating:  Summary: Eeew. Review: Nobody's said anything yet about the repulsively twee, incomparably false sex-and-romance scenes, which are surely among the worst ever to be set into type. I surmise that Glass thinks he's showing his hot-blooded hetero side, but the lovey-dovey bits could have been written by a virgin girl of 14 years.
Rating:  Summary: Imagine - A Lying Reporter!!! Review: ODD CONVERGENCE NOTE - I read this book at the very same time as the Jayson Blair/NY Times scandal was breaking...an eerie coincidence along the sames lines as "China Syndrome/Three Mile Island".Stephen Glass had a brilliant opportunity to capitalize on self-induced scandal in writing "The Fabulist". Having been fired from The New Republic for fabricating stories, Glass turned the tables and has written the fictional "Fabulist", about a reporter who fabricates stories. Talk about knowing that of which you write. The problem with the book is, unfortunately that Glass is way too close to his source material. Price's story, in the hands of a good, yet independent writer could have been a blockbuster - deceipt over the machinery of a media powerhouse, the tumbling of career dreams and promises, and eventual (hopeful) redemption. Glass, telling his own story, has neither the independent view, or to be honest the literary skills to make this story as compelling as it might have been. Glass is at his best when looking at the reasons behind his perpetration of media fraud - desire for attention and need to excel being at the root. Once his charecter (appropriately enough called Stephen Glass) finds that his "fiction" is earning him merit in the world of reporting, he becomes an insatiable beast - producing story after story that earns him notice, yet takes even more deisre to tell the truth away. By the time Glass's fraud is exposed, the reader has little sympathy left for Glass. He invents excuses for the character's actions that become annoying (actually, when the writer drifts from Glass the reporter to Glass the son/brother/lover, the story grows more and more annoying). While the premise of the book is fascinating, and the final section (Denouement, which follows Downfall, Debacle, Disappearance and Desperation) is well written, this book is primarily a series of unfulfilled promises.
Rating:  Summary: 5* For The 'Trickster' For Opening Up Pandora's Box Review: Of course the American public detests this writer. That's the right, puritan thing to do. Meanwhile, it goes on believing everything that appears in newspaper print. The point of Glass's fantasies is not to condemn a single man, but to fact-check our own beliefs, so willingly spoonfed by the corporately owned US media. How many are willing to shatter that glass?!
Tip: Watch the movie instead - Shattered Glass!
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