Lunar Park
Bret Ellis, the narrator of Lunar Park, is a writer whose first novel Less Than Zero catapulted him to international stardom while he was still in college. In the years that followed he found himself adrift in a world of wealth, drugs, and fame, as well as dealing with the unexpected death of his abusive father. After a decade of decadence a chance for salvation arrives; the chance to reconnect with an actress he was once involved with, and their son. But almost immediately his new life is threatened by a freak sequence of events and a bizarre series of murders that all seem to connect to Ellis's past. His attempts to save his new world from his own demons makes Lunar Park Ellis's most suspenseful novel. In this chilling tale reality, memoir, and fantasy combine to create not only a fascinating version of this most controversial writer but also a deeply moving novel about love and loss, parents and children, and ultimately forgiveness.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Stats for nerds
1recommend
2mentions
2people
2010–2018years
50% recommend50% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- That is a splendid list.
I'll add:
"Sandman" by Neil Gaiman. Also a graphic novel, but this series literally reinvented comics to me, and to many other readers.
"Lunar Park" by Bret Easton Ellis. Probably the safest introduction to Ellis if you aren't looking for a rampant gore-fest. Spooky, creepy, chilling, but also insightful, confounding and enlightening.
"Catcher in the Rye" by JD Salinger. Mostly recommending as it fits into the above list, but I feel like it was missing. I personally felt it was overhyped, but I'm the odd man out, as everybody I've ever talked to considers it profound.
- >Furthermore, the article claims that postmodern is characterized by an ironic self awareness, and never has this idea been more prominent in culture. In recent years I have noticed that TV commercials have become more and more self-aware. Take for example a recent commercial by what I believe was Verizon. It says something like "More coverage, more data." and then another actor comes into screen saying "and more people saying more." If this isn't ironic self awareness, I'm not sure what is.
I think that perfectly proves the author's point, though. The "self awareness" of postmodernism has filtered to even the most banal of sources and been left in the dust by the avant garde of today. Irony and sarcasm as critical devices are dead for anyone but the hacks.
From the article:
>"people who produce the cultural material which academics and non-academics read, watch and listen to, have simply given up on postmodernism. The occasional metafictional or self-conscious text will appear, to widespread indifference – like Bret Easton Ellis’ Lunar Park – but then modernist novels, now long forgotten, were still being written into the 1950s and 60s. The only place where the postmodern is extant is in children’s cartoons like Shrek and The Incredibles, as a sop to parents obliged to sit through them with their toddlers. This is the level to which postmodernism has sunk; a source of marginal gags in pop culture aimed at the under-eights."
