Rating: ![3 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-3-0.gif) Summary: 8 years and it shows Review: It apparently took Ellis about 8 years to write this book, and it certainly shows. Despite whatever was going on his personal life that made him take time off, he tried to pack too much into this work. It feels very labored, and there are too many devices which impede the story from moving forward in any satisfying way. Most notably, the whole idea of the different film crews running the show. Also, Victor is too unlikable, and frankly, too stupid of a character to justify nearly 500 pages of his little journey. The story goes awry when he leaves New York on the QE2, and the terrorism, of course described in loving detail by Ellis, including pages and pages of description of a place crash, is utterly without poignance. Even the sex scenes are unnecessarily over the top, almost numbing and certainly pornographic. Overall though, a must for Ellis fans I guess. There is quite a bit that is downright hilarious in this book. It just feels a lot less complete or neat as American Psycho, if that makes sense.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: glamorama Review: I read this book while on holiday with my annoying family, and it was the perfect way to get your mind off them. Though I had some trouble getting into the book, but once I did I never wanted to stop reading it.
Rating: ![1 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-1-0.gif) Summary: Like a visit to a tourist trap Review: This is one of the worst books I have ever read (er-sort of read; the last 2 sections I skimmed). Ellis' characters do not ring true in the least, and his too too precious manner of describing the very vanity and vapidity he is lampooning left me yawning. He acts as if he has a secret wistful admiration of all banal celebrity-driven things (and all things Prada--Jesus, aren't there any other designers in New York?), and one cannot have it both ways. You can't satirize if you are unaware of yourself. Even the ludicrous sex "scenes" were boring and unimaginative. This book is cheap, dumb, and doesn't quite know what to do with itself. Skip it.
Rating: ![3 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-3-0.gif) Summary: I'm not the only one. Review: One of the good things about books is that both the good and the not so good ones make you think. The problem with Glamorama is that you don't know know what to think and you need to read one of BEE's interviews to understand what the book is about.And even that way you can never know for sure. A plot here? Come on!You must be kidding me. I'm not saying the book needed one (American Psycho looks pretty good without one), but if the author says there is one, I want to know where is it. The beginning of the 'story' looked good, but the very first minute Victor sails the ocean the plot(?) goes down the toilet, and thus you can see that I consider a semi-plot all the night club affair. There are too many loose knots in this book to really call it a masterpiece.Unlike Bateman, Victor never catches my interest, as the only feeling I have towards him is one of pity.But (and with Ellis there's always a 'but') you can always rely on the descriptions, the funny sidekick characters, such as JD, and the feeling that in a strange and disturbing manner, everything fits into place. My point here is that I don't what Ellis wrote about. And I'm deeply sorry.( By the way, how does the story end? Help me, please).
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: Misunderstood Review: Glamorama takes American Psycho to the next level (so much that the reader actually sees Pat Bateman alive and well ten years later through Victor's eyes). I think that the most incredible part of this book is Ellis' ability to create a completely worthless narrator that the reader is supposed to hate. The narrator is every bit as shallow as Bateman, but lacks the intellegence and go-getter attitude. This book is not an easy read though. Ellis explores the narrator's mind by using a film crew to follow him. This concept is difficut to pick up at first but easier to understand as the narrator's mind begins to decay. I would however recomend reading "Rules of Atraction" first just to catch many of the "sequal" jokes found in this book.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: The contents of emptiness. Review: "GLAMORAMA" is a breathtaking masterpiece description of the contents of the emptimess of our times. The characters are the answer to the longings of a commumity drunk by the single mencion of fame. The locations are picked out of today's most worshiped cities. The plot mixes alcool and workout, sex and money, politics and power, Prada suits and bombs, drugs and beauty, males and females, following a logic of apearent caos that keeps them moving towards an their ultimate destiny. If it were a moral tale,the conclusion would be that as we keep on sliding down the surface of things, the more we look, the more we see. Though the book is a depressing x-ray of a society that has managed to loose it self, the very end shows a sign of hope. Finally, the answer may be in the mirror that dispays our twisted image along with the one of the freezing and stinky world we've created.
Rating: ![3 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-3-0.gif) Summary: I lost the plot! Review: The first fifteen chapters of Glamorama are breathtakingly good. Ellis is a virtuoso - he employs words and language to wonderful effect. This part of the book is funny, witty and addictive.However, then disaster strikes Victor and the book takes a turn. This is when I lost the plot! The second two thirds are a disappointment - I skim read the remainder of the story. Don't buy this book - but if you can borrow a copy, I'd recommend it, since the first 15 chapters are really wonderful.
Rating: ![1 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-1-0.gif) Summary: This guy writes like he gets paid by the word Review: I have a feeling this novel's life cycle was something like that of a kilo of cocaine: it starts out 99 per cent pure in Colombia but by the time it hits the streets of New York it weighs about 50 kilos and is largely baby powder and drain cleaner. So much of this reads like it was faxed over by a researcher and just pasted in, particularly the endless lists of celebrities. You start reading faster and faster, skimming pages, then gulping down whole fistfuls of pages in an effort to extract some kind of hit but it's still the same mindless monologue, in which a disembowelling is described with the same flatness of tone as a fashion shoot, and London is exactly the same as New York. Maybe that's the point, but I think this is a lazy book, not the solid read the book's bulk implies, and if you buy your books by the pound you'll feel exceedingly ripped off by this one..
Rating: ![2 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-2-0.gif) Summary: A little bit of Kafka Review: Ellis seems to give it a try with a little bit of Kafka. Everything is uncertain, even the label on your suit. Victor Ward or Johnson in Glamorama does never really know whats going on around him - may be the same is valid for Ellis: May be he has written two or more scripts and could not decide which one should be the one. So I was happy to reach the end of the book, uhm, like, the last page of the text?
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: An American masterpiece for our times Review: I don't think I can emphasise how much I enjoyed Ellis' latest novel. This book, with it's commentary on the nature of celebritydom and our obsession with it, had so many twists and turns that it left the reader wondering where Ellis was going to take us next. The concept of a group of glamarous, superficial models/actors taking part in international terrorism and political conspiracies, was so bizarre that it could only have come from a writer as refreshingly unique as Ellis. This is a novel I would recommend to anyone, but be warned as soon as you read the first few chapters, you won't be able to put it down.
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