Rating: 
Summary: Highly ambitious but...
Review: There is no doubt that Ellis deserves an important place in fiction today. You can already see his influence on a number of younger writers today, and hey, for better or for worse, it means something. To call his writing 'blank hyperreality', as one critic on the UK edition jacket did, is very accurate. Glamorama is very ambitious. It took Ellis nearly 8 years, but in the end it seems like 2 or 3 books he tried to sell as one final 90s statement. If you are looking for a return to the style of American Psycho, his masterpiece, this is it. But somewhere when our protagonist is on the QE2 the book changes too much. The whole device of having everyone in the novel being filmed by two different camera crews is just unnecessary--a grand, pretensious idea that Ellis, instead of abandoning, hangs onto until it almost completely mucks up the story. As a matter of fact, the last 50 pages or so make no sense on first read, or second. But the journey there is generally smooth and entertaining. Suffice to say no one with half a brain in Hollywood should ever touch this, or any of Ellis' work.
Rating: 
Summary: Expected something else
Review: I'm very new to Ellis' work, but have read 60% of his books now. Glamorama was, say, WAY different from Less than Zero and American Psycho.The first half of the book is hilarious, full of celebrities, quotes from the narrator's favorite bands, all this lifestyle of the rich and famous. Then it takes a much darker turn, the latter half being, yes, from time to time, funny, but the point is in Victor experiencing things he's never even thought of. This is the first Ellis book with a real plot (TM), which was quite a surprise. It works, but it's nothing special. I think it's more of a frame for this narrator guy Victor to grow up from the annoying kid he is in the beginning. And I thought it lagged a bit somewhere, was it in London? Not for long, though. In compensation, there are these really, really intense 50 or 60 pages near the end, so I can't complain. I've heard this growing-up theme of the "hero" compared to the author's growing-up, which I agree to some point. Glamorama is more mature than the previous Ellis I've read, more...close to life? The main character evolves, and is reduced from the star he is to a low self-esteemed loser and from that... What appealed to me most in this one also, is the way Bret Easton Ellis writes. He is a master stylist, a fairly visual writer, and I love the long sentences. Plus the dialogue. Glamorama differed from the previous Ellis's quite a bit, and that is why I don't consider myself completely qualified to give it a rating, the book taking me by surprise, but I think it deserves the four stars I've given if not for anything else, for language, style, comedy, some very intense scenes and the beautifully confusing way everything is set up in the latter half (and I'm NOT going to give out what makes it so). Although Glamorama felt a bit lagging somewhere in the middle, as a whole it works nicely. I don't think I got everything out the first time, though...
Rating: 
Summary: It should have been called ... Namedroporama?
Review: I might have enjoyed this novel if I hadn't had to wade through the piles and piles of name droppings. And hey, if I had a dollar for every time Victor put on a Prada suit, I would be rich. This is my first Bret Easton Ellis and I have to say, I don't think I have the strength to muddle through another. Thanks, but not thanks.
Rating:
Summary: What' s the problem?
Review: Why doesn' t the pricipal character remember of so many things as the pictures he sees on the boat? Is that an important aspect of the book? Did I miss something? Please somebody help me, I love Ellis, I can' t stand this feeling of not finished...
Rating:
Summary: OH YES
Review: I'm a portuguese 29 year data base aDministrator, and i've been reading Elli's work since Less Than Zero (my prefered). I think in Glamorama Bret has evolved, the action is now much more natural, and the environment we're guided into, is much more dense than in American Psycho or any other one of his novels, being in Europe as i am and highly influenciated by american culture, i always thought the "real" thing would be something like Ellis describes in his books, but after reading Glamorama i think Ellis reached a stage of maturity that only great novelists achieve when they are old enough to win a Nobel, like Portuguese writer SARAMAGO won last year. This time Ellis present's us with an odious first Personage called Victor, wich is the standard sample of a mid famous model, with all of his virtues and bad sides. My first aproach to Glamorama wasn't easy, i'm reading it in English, so many times i have to go to a dictionary so i can understand some "slang" words or sentences, but after 3 chapters, and just like with Patrick Bateman, Sean Bateman and Clay Bateman, one just accepts the characther and get acomplished with him, showing as usual a person with self consciousness and own thoughts in an empty morale "universe", Ellis drive's us trough a journey where reality and fantasy walk along together and depend among each other to the novel's credibility, i wasn't expecting nothing much better than American Psycho to be honest, but Glamorama is a must, being an European and Accuainted with a lot of European and also as normal with portuguese model's i can tell Ellis made the right picture of it, and without any problems about it just described it in raw mode that i must say, i wouldn't expect one to be able, even knowing his complete work. Glamorama is the Novel of the 90's and Bret is improving every book he writes, i don't think he'll ever read this, but i must say that Bret for being like that,not to surrender to politycal correction and to give the world a picture how things real happen, is the most honest writer i've ever read. I hope Bret keeps the good work and that we can still read many of his novels with the same accuracy and cleaverness he has used us to. The scenarios, people, pop culture of the 90's and stuff described in Glamorama are so well inserted in the novel that i become surprised, i know Ellis was good, but not this good. This book will stand in the 20th century most well done novels, just like American Psycho did for us, who can understand the message, Since Jon Steinbeck that i wasn't so much fun reading a book and trying to finish it as soon as possible... BRET EASTON ELLIS WILL WIN A NOBEL FOR LITERATURE SOONER OR LATER I'M SURE. Regards From Portugal, Europe INCITATUS P.S- SORRY FOR MY ENGLISH
Rating:
Summary: And the Director yelled Cut!
Review: This dribble is a mindless romp into oblivion without the presence of a captivating protagonist. Where should I start? The Character: Mr Glamour Boy Victor Ward, is extremely boring particularly with his loud and stupid remarks. Victor's antics were about as exciting as watching paint dry. This is in stark contrast to Bateman, our beloved American Psycho who so artfully articulated his views of the world to us. The Story: The plot was just dry with no spark of life. This book however did prompt me to ask two questions: How can a talented writer produce this garbage? and What the hell was his editor thinking?
Rating:
Summary: laughably frightening
Review: Never has Euro-American elite cultural fashion been parodied so lovingly and viciously as in "Glamorama," where Ellis renders celebrity, glamhood, and modelhood into a shimmering super-world of symbolism and semiotics where every interaction between Victor (the male model protagonist) and his urban elite friends and enemies speaks volumes about our late 20th century minds that are inseparable from the voluminous media they devour hourly. Unfortunately, however, the book becomes laughable in its second half as it attempts to depict fashion models as anti-Zionist terrorists working to influence American elections by blowing up Parisian cafes. Ok, sure, it's a cool idea. I'm not trying to be some kind of zealous nerd here. But it comes off as absolutely laughable, and Ellis betrays his total ignorance of world politics several times a page. You may think that this shortcoming is irrelevant to the book's goal, but it sure makes it damn hard to take seriously.
Rating: 
Summary: And baby, as usual, you're missing the point...
Review: If you've re-read all of Ellis' previous work and it's the fifth time you're re-reading Glamorama and you still don't get it, don't worry, I don't think you were meant to get it in the first place.
Rating:
Summary: Get through Part One and you won't be disappointed.
Review: I almost abandoned this book during Part One, but decided, thankfully, to persevere. This book proves to be surprisingly humorous and ties up a seemingly convoluted plot beautifully in the end. I would relish the opportunity to meet Ellis to get a handle on a man so seemingly intrigued by sex, violence and pop culture. As "American Psycho" serves as an overview of the '80s, "Glamorama" does the same for the decade known as the '90s.
Rating:
Summary: Not just a "Book for the 90s"
Review: It was hard for me to admit, after finishing "Glamorama," but Ellis is one of the most original satirists we have working today. Hard because I used to buy the criticism about his trendiness, the endless pop-culture references masking a lack of vision. Not so: in fact, one great irony of our ironic fin-de-siecle culture is that so many critics fail to recognize real irony! Folks, the vapidity and the inconsistency of the pop culture cataloging is done deliberately--deliberately--to invoke a sense of the impermanence and interchangeablity. I've read the hacks who think pop culture references are substitutes for cultural commentary; hell, most of them write for magazines, TV and Hollywood. Ellis, if you're willing to cut him the slack you'd cut any other writer who isn't Ellis, is cut from a different and classically American jib. His is a moral satire akin to some of the works of Hawthorne, West, even Fitzgerald. The use of surrealism in this work is probably it's shakiest premise because it asks you, de facto, to surrender your need for clear cut reality; this really is nothing new in writing. Glamorama works when you accept its surrealism instead of working against it. Why people work so hard to put this writer down, especially after the knee-jerk reaction to the underrated American Psycho (a very funny book!), is not hard to see. They mistake the writer for the soulless, vapid yuppie partyboys of his novels. Here's the news: Ellis is really one of the most talented and traditional writers working today. He deserves at least a little credit.
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