Lunar Park

`Lunar Park' opens and closes more than splendidly. It actually may contain Bret Easton Ellis' greatest work yet. It's elegant, graceful, blunt and satirical while remaining completely original just like his work preceding. In fact, Ellis makes his life seem so unbelievable that while he opens and closes with pretty much a fact based fictional retelling of his life, past and present, your drawn to his character as if he were the most debased and unthinkable creation Ellis has ever penned. In short, he makes the auto-biography/biography enjoyable. The sad part is that when Ellis breaks away from his biography and begins telling his Steven King inspired horror story he loses touch with what made his open and close so brilliant. He starts to wane.This isn't to say for one moment that `Lunar Park' is not in it of itself a fine literary journey. Ellis is still a masterful storyteller, it's just that the horror that Ellis so beautifully orchestrates is most effective when tearing at the fabrics of what makes us human, not when he's seeing ghosts and demons. In fact, the hardest part about reading `Lunar Park' is realizing that it'll never frighten you. Ellis tries maybe too hard to get a scare in here or there but he fails to instigate even a chill. Instead he builds a wall of frustration around the reader until he's dulled to Ellis' tempting and teasing and gives up even hoping for a blood-curdling scene or a heart-racing realization.Come to think of it, Ellis does a lot of tempting and teasing in this novel, when it comes to pretty much everything. As far as an Ellis novel goes this is by far the tamest. There's almost no sex and the violence is far from explicit. In fact it almost feels as if you're reading another author all together. The only real shedding of light as far as the basis of anything Ellis comes in his relationship with his children. In Ellis novels past he has always built a wall around family interaction, giving us the battered and torn version of the family circle, but what's interesting here is that Ellis decides to delve a little deeper and give us a man trying in his own strange way to revert that and make a difference. This is Ellis breaking his own mold, and it is the first clue amongst may that this is going to be a ride least expected.So here, Ellis paints for us his life in another realm so-to-speak. This is the life Ellis could have had and he tells it as if it is the life he is now living. What's interesting is that he claims everything in this novel really happened, and in a way I believe that to be true. This is a novel about a man coming to terms with inner demons. So did Ellis really find himself chased by a strange ghastly demon? No, but in his mind he's run from many I'm sure. So here, in this life, Ellis is married to an actress and finds himself father to two children, one biological, one not. Living a normal life is a far cry from what he's used to and it's slowly driving him mad. But during a Halloween party he's tossed out of the normal and into the paranormal and his life starts to spiral, beginning with that night and moving forward day after day, night after night.From the return of his dead father to the emersion of Patrick Bateman in the flesh, Ellis is tortured by a slew of horrific daily occurrences, and as his house takes on an evil demeanor of its own Ellis is forced to reevaluate his life decisions, his own human mechanics and its here that Ellis takes true form. That is why I say in my title that I'll stand by this novel despite its many shortcomings, because, while Ellis may not illicit shivers with his demonic toys he does evoke fear in the pit of my stomach as he falls apart on paper, dissecting his own spirit as he battles the demons within, and that my friends is Ellis as his finest and most horrifying.

"Lunar Park" by Bret Easton Ellis is a haunting and complex masterpiece that is addicting, enjoyable and at times horrifying. I have only read two of his other novels (that being "Less than Zero" and "American Psycho"), and I can easily say that this is my favorite of the three. It's odd that those two are the only other ones I have read, as the book references those two exact books quite frequently. What starts out as a typical biography (that's the tone, anyway--doesn't mean all of it is exactly true) ends up being an account of something mysterious and at times terrifying.In the novel, Bret Easton Ellis has made himself a narrator and character. He takes us through the success of "Less than Zero" and the controversy that haunted him with the publication of "American Psycho." He tells us that it wasn't exactly himself that wrote the novel, but it was something else inside of him. Success came too quick for Bret, as he is immediately plunged into a world of drugs and one night stands. His only saving grace was a relationship with an actress where a son was produced. Years later, Bret decides it's time to clean up his act and be there for Jane and his son, along with his stepdaughter.Easier said than done, Bret finds out. He is still boozing and drugging every chance he gets. Not only that, but there are some very odd things going on with the house that he and his family occupy. Paint peeling off the outside of the house, terrible scratching at the walls and doors that happen at night, blank e-mails from the Bank of America that keep popping up at the exact same time everyday, boys in his town disappearing without any explanation or trace, and the fact that furniture seems to rearrange itself without anybody's help. Of course, with Bret still being nowhere near sober it makes it hard for anybody to believe him that all of these strange things are really happening and that they are targeting him for whatever reason. All of this adds up to a mysterious and dark odyssey that will change Bret and his life forever.This may seem like your typical horror story, but I can promise you that it is not. This novel does a wonderful job of combining elements of horror, and also works as a meditation on the very act of writing and one coming to terms with his or her past. I found myself hooked on every word and found it almost impossible to put down. Ellis has written a superb book that has a lot of memorable moments, both scary and funny at times. It's a daring work of fiction that I have to believe he had a lot of fun working on. Nobody can produce a book like this without getting some sort of enjoyment or satisfaction out of it."Lunar Park" won't be for everybody, that much is for sure. Some may not like how odd or bizarre it can get. And then there will be others like myself who end up loving every word. You do not have to have read the other books to enjoy this novel, although it really does help if you're familiar with "Less than Zero" and "American Psycho." While there are some pretty gruesome moments of violence, it is nowhere near as graphic as "American Psycho" was.I am really glad that I took this bizarre and mysterious journey. I was also happy to find a book that ends up being complex and have many layers within itself. Not everybody will agree, but I think this is Bret Easton Ellis' masterpiece, and it shows us a writer who is still evolving and who is not afraid to take chances and go where others may fear. A 5-star book, without question. - Michael Crane

One of the most complex and intimate work of Bret Easton Ellis.Half hilarious memoir, half homage to the master of horror and thriller Stephen King, the story goes around the 'American Psycho''s novelist and his family. Now married with a famous actress, with kids and dogs and yet the same old drugs habit, Ellis faces a mysterious, 'invisible' enemy.

I wonder if Bret Easton Ellis ever logs into Amazon & reads these customer reviews?If so, I'd like him to know that I the final few pages of Lunar Park moved me to tears - something that, in light of his earlier (&, indeed, subsequent) writings, I thought impossible. Starting out as a witty Stephen King pastiche, with a generous measure of self-regarding parody, the realisation gradually dawns that this isn't a straight ahead horror story at all - instead, it documents one (fictitious?) writer's inexorable, painful drift towards middle age, & his ensuing emotional struggle.Maybe I'm just being naive. Perhaps Lunar Park is merely a cynical authorial experiment in manipulating it's readers' emotions? Or perhaps, for once, Ellis has opened his heart a little, to express a lingering, reflective regret?Either way, it's a very good read.

I really wasn't prepared for the marvellousness of this novel.What starts as an interesting insight in the mind and pointlessness of the author's life, filled with generous doses of dope, turns insidiously into one of the scariest books I've ever read, only to find its final solution and true meaning (the reconciliation with the real father) in the compelling and astonishing narration of the final chapter.This is the first book of Eliis that I 've read and it was the revelation of one of the greatest writers of our time!

Delivery and price were great. I will leave book reviews to those who enjoy that sort of thing.

Self indulgent, name dropping and goes to interesting places if you like boasting, heavy drinking, drug-taking, irresponsibility, American life-styles, misogyny and bloated writing.